Andrew Marr: Sunak's 'bold' Cabinet reshuffle shows how confident he really is

25 October 2022, 18:13

Rishi Sunak's "bold" Cabinet reshuffle shows how confident he really is as the new Prime Minister, Andrew Marr has said.

Opening LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr, the presenter reflected on Rishi Sunak stepping into No10 as the new Prime Minister, looking at what he will do in the role and the changes he has made to the Cabinet.

"So what's he up to?" asked Andrew.

"We’ve noticed that this new Prime Minister is our first of Indian heritage, a Hindu, very young, and richer than the king.

"But what is Rishi Sunak actually going to do?

"Over the course of the day we've had some broad hints. Let me try a little light decoding.

"First, he’s going to take unpopular decisions to cut spending and or raise taxes. No surprise there.

"Thanks to the pandemic, the Ukraine war, global inflation, and Liz Truss’ exuberant experiment, Britain faces a black hole in the public finances of between 30 and 40 billion pounds - what Sunak called in Downing Street this morning "a profound economic crisis".

"He spoke frankly of his predecessor’s mistakes while saying he admired her restlessness. Good word, restlessness.

"I think it’s our new Prime Minister’s euphemism for mad as a box of frogs.

"He had been chosen to fix the mistakes which meant difficult decisions.

"Question is, Rishi, which decisions?"

Watch Tonight with Andrew Marr exclusively on Global Player every Monday to Thursday from 6pm to 7pm

Andrew Marr: Sunak's 'bold' Cabinet reshuffle shows how confident he really is

Andrew continued: "As we heard on yesterday's show, he is a spreadsheet kind of guy but he also knows that his maximum personal popularity happened when he splashed public money during the pandemic - and today outside No10 he was very keen to remind us of that.

"We had seen him, he said, 'during Covid doing everything I could to protect people and businesses', adding, 'I promise you this, I will bring that same compassion to the challenges we face today.'

"If this means anything and I devoutly hope it does, it suggests he will not be making cuts at the expense of the poorest - so perhaps he will be uprating benefits in line with inflation.

"The rest of what he said, promising 'integrity professionalism and accountability at every level' and, in what seemed like a swipe at Boris Johnson promising 'to unite the country not with words but with action' was interesting enough but frankly predictable.

You can also listen to the podcast Tonight with Andrew Marr only on Global Player.

"For me, the most alarming thing Sunak told us was 'I am not daunted'.

"In my experience, when politicians bother to say they are not daunted, it's time for the rest of us to rummage around for Kevlar helmets and flak jackets.

"Apart from his words, Sunak’s other signals this afternoon consisted in the reshaping of the government - the sackings and resignations and then the hirings.

"He said he wanted to be inclusive and reach out to all parts of the party.

"Jeremy Hunt stays as Chancellor. James Cleverly stays at Foreign and Ben Wallace at Defence - an important message to Kyiv.

"Michael Gove is returning to levelling up and Grant Shapps, who briefly fizzed with Liz, is Business.

"More controversially, Suella Braverman, who dreams of flying migrants to Rwanda, is back as Home Secretary.

"But with the departure of Jacob Rees-Mogg, Brandon Lewis, Kit Malthouse, Chloe Smith, Wendy and Morton, it looks like a pretty dramatic clear out of backers of both Truss and Johnson. 

"And as with those two back when, the biggest threat to Sunak right now is probably disloyalty on the back benches.

"In which case, this bold reshuffle showed us just how quietly confident our remarkably youthful Prime Minister really is."