Chancellor of the Exchequer ‘advocated the end of the UK’
The current Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, once advocated the end of the UK because he didn’t believe it made financial sense, according to a profile in the Financial Times.
According to an article in the newspaper, the Conservative MP who is being taked up as a potential future Prime Minister is a “political pragmatist,” a trait apparent “in his approach to the four-nation United Kingdom”.
The Financial Times quotes a fellow Conservative who says: “I remember discussing the future of the Union with Rishi and he argued that England should break away. He was advocating the end of the UK because it doesn’t make financial sense to him.
“He doesn’t have any love for the institution and I suspect he looks at it as he looks at anything: what’s the profit?”
Responding to the claims on Twitter, Sunak wrote: “There are some comments about the Union falsely attributed to me in the FT today.
“My parents moved to the United Kingdom, not England, because the Union represented an idea of opportunity. I am a strong believer in our union of four nations. Hope that clarifies that!”
‘Levelling up’
Since joining the UK Government Rishi Sunak has openly advocated against a second independence referendum which could free Scotland of the UK.
Asked if the Tory Government would allow a second vote, he told Andrew Marr in December: “The Prime Minister’s been very clear. He is unequivocally committed to the Union, he passionately believes in it, and as you see this new government get to work, strengthening our Union, and levelling up and uniting our country will be at the heart of our agenda.”
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What’s new, we know that tories are a bunch of chancers, they’d kill their granny for a quick buck. It will take more than one parliamentary term to level-up in Scotland given that they’ve been hollowing out Scotland for 314 years and for even longer in the case of Wales. Have these clowns in Wastemonster not learned from their past mistakes in denying Independence to just about every country in their ’empire’ where there is a long list of now Independent Countries from India, Burmah, Cypress, Kenya, et al and last but not least don’t forget their treatment of the… Read more »
It’s likely that he adopted his former “end the UK for England’s sake” position when he was young, uninformed, and labouring under the illusion that the Celtic countries were welfare junkies sponging off dear old England. The last three paragraphs of the article nicely crystalise the position not only of himself now, but also the entire Tory Party and indeed all political parties at Westminster, except one (or rather, two — Wales can rely on support from the SNP).
Perhaps persuading the English that they would be better off independent – and thus giving us our independence by default – is our most probable route to independence. To sweeten the deal we could allow our border to stay open in order for them to continue to come to Cymru to ‘play’!
Not on your Nelly!
What is interesting about the British Empire is how quickly its colonies regained their independence in the two decades after Suez. The British didn’t hang on to their colonies any more than other colonial powers and the only countries whose empires collapsed more quickly – Germany (1918), Japan (1945) and Russia (1989-91) – were overtaken by events beyond their control or defeated in war.
Sounds like his team spotted this faux pas before the opposition, released the article in FT then rebutted it early. Good team this chap.
Bunter “passionate” about his dinner, but not spottin’.
good first impression but has deteriorated rapidly to the level of most of the rest of the Tory cabinet
With the Conservatives I’d suggest that the clue’s in the name – they stand for ‘stare super vias antiquas’ – ‘stand upon the old ways’. And those ‘old ways’ are ‘Queen and Empire’. Since, in the modern world, that’s not much left of the latter but ‘core Empire’ – i.e. Great Britain and Northern Ireland – the Tory default tendency has been to commit themselves wholly to safeguarding ‘core Empire’. Which is why they’ve long styled themselves ‘the Conservative and Unionist party’. The Conservatives long had a minority hard right faction – neo-liberal, small-state, free-market – which in practice was… Read more »
A duplicitous Conservative. What a shock! Clearly someone not to be trusted, but The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail will spend months telling us that he’s ‘honest Rishi’ as they seek to avoid a General Election wipeout.