Sunak, Take 3: Why Britain’s Leader is on His 3rd Political Makeover

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s dramatic shake-up of his cabinet on Monday was a bold gamble that tacking to the center will give him a lift in the polls that his lurch to the populist right this summer failed to accomplish.

But as Britain’s political establishment digested the news — the return of a more centrist former prime minister, David Cameron, and the ouster of a hard edged home secretary, Suella Braverman, who lashed out at Mr. Sunak on Tuesday — analysts said the prime minister’s pivot smacked of a politician casting about for an identity.

Far from a winning electoral formula, some predict that the reshuffle could fracture the coalition that delivered a landslide victory for the Conservative Party in 2019. By trying to shore up the party’s traditional heartland in the south of England, they said, Mr. Sunak risked alienating the working-class voters in the “red wall,” who once flocked to the Tory slogan, “Get Brexit done.”

“It doesn’t make any more sense than most of Sunak’s moves since the summer,” said Timothy Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. “And it’s unlikely to make a blind bit of difference to his chances of turning things around before the general election.”

Mr. Bale said that in a general election, which is likely to be held next fall, Britons will cast their votes based on issues like the cost of living and rising rates on home mortgages, rather than primarily on identity politics.

This is Mr. Sunak’s third political makeover since he replaced Liz Truss as prime minister 13 months ago. First, he was a pragmatic technocrat, who stabilized the economy after Ms. Truss’s proposed tax cuts. Then he adopted divisive policies on climate change, immigration, and crime to try to put the opposition Labour Party on the defensive.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

We are confirming your access to this article, this will take just a moment. However, if you are using Reader mode please log in, subscribe, or exit Reader mode since we are unable to verify access in that state.

Confirming article access.

If you are a subscriber, please log in.