In an interview to talk about the stunning defeat faced by the Conservative Party in Britain last week as well as Rishi Sunak’s legacy as the first non-white Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Britain’s former Deputy Foreign Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, says: “Even the Archangel Gabriel would not have been able to win this election”. He says the Conservatives have won four consecutive elections and no party in Britain’s history has ever won five on the trot.
In a 17-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Andrew Mitchell, a former Secretary of State for International Development and now Conservative MP for Sutton Coldfield, which makes him one of the 121 Conservative MPs to have been re-elected, described Rishi Sunak as an “outstanding public servant”.
Amongst Rishi Sunak’s achievements, Mitchell listed bringing stability to British politics, respectability to the office of Prime Minister and restoring a measure of health to the British economy.
In particular, Mr. Mitchell mentioned reducing inflation to 2%. However, Mr. Mitchell accepted that the Conservatives failed to effectively tackle immigration as well as the state of the National Health Service. He agreed taxes were high but that is substantially because of measures Rishi Sunak had to take as Chancellor of the Exchequer during Covid. Now, they have to be paid for. Mr. Mitchell accepted that for many people Rishi Sunak’s lasting legacy will be that he was Britain’s first non-white Prime Minister, adding that this was not considered remarkable by the British and that is a measure of the extent to which the United Kingdom has changed.
It’s widely believed that Mr. Mitchell will be appointed the new Shadow Foreign Secretary when Rishi Sunak announces the shadow cabinet. However, this is not as yet confirmed. I am only giving you the big main points made by Andrew Mitchell.
As someone who’s won 11 elections and first became an MP in 1987, there are few members of the Conservative Party who are in a better position – both in terms of experience and understanding – than Andrew Mitchell when it comes to explaining the Tory response to their defeat and assessing Rishi Sunak’s legacy as Prime Minister.
