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Sunak’s latest interview proved he has no answers – even with Kuenssberg finally asking questions

Recent leaks suggest Rishi Sunak is going to cancel the HS2 link to Manchester. Given the intense speculation on HS2‘s future, the most obvious question on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg was always going to be ‘what’s going on?’. As ever, Sunak showed himself to be a man without answers:

HS2

As reported by the Manchester Evening News, Sunak refused to answer whether HS2 will make it all the way to the North. To be specific, he repeatedly refused to answer. To make things even more awkward, Sunak is literally in Manchester right now for the annual Tory Party conference. Kuenssberg asked him:

We are sitting in Salford right next to Manchester. Yes or no: will HS2, high-speed rail, come to this part of the world?

Slippery Sunak responded:

Look, there’s already spades in the ground and we’re getting on with delivering it.

He didn’t elaborate on whether these spades were actually being operated. When Kuenssberg pointed out she hadn’t asked him about his shovels, Sunak answered as follows (that’s ‘answered’ in the loosest sense of the word, obviously):

I’m not going to comment on all this speculation. We’ve got a project, we’ve got spades in the ground, and we’re getting on with it but it’s right to focus on levelling up.

Unexpectedly, Kuenssberg didn’t respond with her famous catchphrase – ‘I want to move on‘. Instead, she actually pressed him on the matter:

Prime minister, can I just stop you there? You are the Prime Minister of this country.

This is not asking you about speculation, you’re not a columnist, you’re not a backbencher with an axe to grind, you’re not someone from the rail industry, you are the prime minister of this country, this is your decision. Is this going to happen or not?

Sunak once again didn’t answer:

As I said, we’ve got space in the ground, I’m not going to comment on further speculation. But what I can tell you is we are absolutely committed to levelling up across this country.

Just today, we’ve announced a new plan, a long term plan actually, to focus on people in towns. More live in towns than live in big cities in our country and they don’t get the attention that they deserve.

And my view is we need to focus on the long term things that will make our towns better places to live, put local people in control and that’s why we’re backing them with a billion pounds of funding to help 55 towns across the country level up, better high streets, more security, less homelessness and making sure they protect civic assets

It’s somewhat less than reassuring that the guy in charge of the country can’t confirm whether he is or is not going to build a massive railway. This lack of clarity has no doubt shaped the public’s perception of ‘Wriggly Rishi’.

The voice of the people

In another uncharacteristically good move, the BBC asked members of the public what they thought of Sunak and turned it into a word cloud. Would you be unsurprised to learn that it was primarily just the word ‘rich’?

To be fair, it wasn’t solely the word ‘rich’ – it also contained synonyms like ‘wealthy’, ‘greed’, and ‘Conservative’.

Sunak’s latest appearance gave people more to say about the man – none of it flattering:

One comment was unfair in the sense that dictators generally have some semblance of a plan; Sunak has all the direction of a weather vane in a tumble dryer:

Sunak’s ‘flip-flopping’ hasn’t been lost on the Tories’ big donors:

At this point, Sunak is literally a laughing stock:

A new BBC?

Who can say what spurned Kuenssberg to actually do her job. Maybe she was left embarrassed by Victoria Derbyshire, who filled in for her last Sunday and showed everyone what a competent interviewer looks like? Maybe her trip to Manchester has got her feeling ‘mad for it’? Either way, we wouldn’t expect more going forwards.

Kuenssberg didn’t go after Sunak because of a sudden desire to speak truth to power; she did so because Sunak is clearly PM in name only. How long he’ll hang on depends solely on how much he enjoys humiliation.

Featured image via BBC – screengrab

By John Shafthauer

This post was originally published on Canary.