London Diary: End of Sunak’s honeymoon period?

Rishi Sunak might give the impression of being a man in total control of things, but behind the scenes, he is facing a revolt from his right-wing Tory colleagues after the party’s disastrous performance in the recent elections to local councils.

It lost more than 1,000 councillors, exceeding pollsters’ worst fears. At a meeting of backbench MPs, several MPs voiced their dissatisfaction with Sunak’s performance during an audience with party chairman Greg Hands. They called for the party to “up its game” as the Labour Party opened a significant lead ahead of next year’s general election that the Tories are widely predicted to lose on present showing.

Sunak’s personal ratings are going downhill, with a new poll giving him a negative net score among voters. Twice as many have a negative than a positive view of the prime minister, giving him a net score of -28. To add insult to injury, his Labour rival Keir Starmer’s ratings are picking up.

With alarm bells ringing in Downing Street, Sunak has launched a charm offensive to soften up his MPs. He invited all Conservative MPs to a Downing Street reception ostensibly to celebrate King Charles’s coronation. Delicacies reportedly included his favourite pork pies from his local butcher in Yorkshire that are “the size of doorsteps”. It was the first time the Conservative parliamentary party gathered en masse since the party’s humiliation in the local elections.

To add to his difficulties, Sunak is facing the prospect of three by-elections as three sitting MPs are set to resign their Commons seats to take up peerage in the Lords. He needs all the luck he can muster in the coming months to ensure his political survival.

---

Mrs Sunak steps out

While on the subject of Sunak, his wife Akshata Murty, who had kept a low profile after a series of controversies over her financial affairs, has decided to be more visible again. Last week, she accompanied her husband on an overseas trip for the first time when he flew to Japan for the G7 summit in Hiroshima.

This came a month after she accompanied him to Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement, which brought an end to 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland, known as ‘the Troubles’. This was her first official domestic trip with the PM as his spouse. It was a high-profile event, where she met Bill and Hillary Clinton and Tony Blair, among other prominent leaders.

She was also at King Charles’s coronation concert at Windsor with Sunak. She posted a photograph on Instagram with the caption: ‘Not your average date night.’

Apparently, until her Japan trip, the only spouse of a foreign leader she had met was Jill Biden, America’s first lady.

But now that she has stepped out, the WAGS (wives and girlfriends—of leaders—sisterhood) is all hers.

Good luck to her.

---

‘Killing Boris Johnson’

And now a word about Sunak’s predecessor Boris Johnson, whose ghost continues to haunt Downing Street.

He is the subject of the controversial film, Killing Boris Johnson (yes, you read that right) to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival. The movie has been described as a dark meditation on the ‘party scandal’ that shook Downing Street when it emerged that Johnson and his staff were enjoying drinks parties at work in breach of lockdown social-distancing rules.

This angered people so much that—in the film—a young man called Kaz, whose mother killed herself after feeling isolated during lockdown while the then-prime minister was having private Christmas parties, thinks of a plan to kill Johnson.

The story is inspired by its writer and director Musa Alderson–Clarke’s personal experience: his mother killed herself during the winter lockdown.

Commenting on the film’s title, the film’s producer Solomon Golding said: “There are some people who feel it’s really inappropriate but the film isn’t about trying to radicalise anyone into wanting to incite violence.”

---

30 minutes a week on mobile?

We have heard all sorts of warnings against excessive use of mobile phones, but here is one that might really put the fear of the gods in many hearts.

Spending hours talking on mobile phones can raise your blood pressure, potentially increasing the risk of a heart attack, according to new research.

A study looked at 212,000 British adults, with an average age of 54, who were asked how often they made calls every week.

Over a 12-year follow-up period, the risk of developing high blood pressure was found to increase the more time people spent on mobile phone calls. Those who were on calls for at least 30 minutes a week were 12 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with high blood pressure than people who spent less time using their phones. So, beware.

---

And, finally, Britain’s bible of etiquette Debrett’s has confirmed that the convention of asking a prospective father-in-law for permission to marry his daughter is “no longer observed”.

Although some men still do it, the practice is waning and it is no longer considered necessary.