For Britain’s New Leader, Politics at Home Overshadow a Smooth Global Debut

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/world/europe/uk-rishi-sunak-gavin-williamson.html

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LONDON — When Prime Minister Rishi Sunak moved into 10 Downing Street two weeks ago, he promised a government of “integrity, professionalism and accountability” after the serial scandals of his former boss, Boris Johnson, and the chaotic policies of his immediate predecessor, Liz Truss.

But on Wednesday in Parliament, opposition lawmakers mocked the Conservative leader with his own high-minded slogan. A day earlier, Mr. Sunak accepted the resignation from his cabinet of Gavin Williamson, an influential ally and a political infighter accused by a female colleague of bullying behavior and abusive statements.

For Mr. Sunak, the 42-year-old son of Indian immigrants who is the first person of color to serve as prime minister, hopes of a political honeymoon have been swiftly dashed, replaced by hard questions about why he ignored warnings and appointed a combative politician who had already been forced out of two cabinet posts.

“First impressions count, and clearly the Williamson story has cut through and will leave people questioning Rishi Sunak’s judgment,” said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London.

The episode had, he said, laid bare the inexperience of a prime minister who did not enter Parliament until 2015. “He was promoted so quickly that he never had enough time to form as a politician,” Professor Bale said.

Moreover, Mr. Williamson, who held the title of minister without portfolio, is the second member of the cabinet to become enmeshed in allegations of wrongdoing. Last week, Suella Braverman, the home secretary, admitted to violating security rules by sending official documents to her private email account.

Ms. Braverman brushed aside calls for her to resign, and Mr. Sunak has so far backed her. But he made only perfunctory efforts to defend Mr. Williamson after allegations surfaced that, when he served as defense secretary under Prime Minister Theresa May he told one civil servant to “slit your throat” and another to “jump out of a window.”

Even before those reports emerged this week, an investigation was underway into text messages Mr. Williamson sent to the former chief whip, Wendy Morton, complaining that he had not been invited to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

In his resignation letter, Mr. Williamson rejected the “characterization of these claims” but admitted he had become “a distraction from the good work the government is doing for the British people.” During a rancorous session of prime minister’s questions in Parliament on Wednesday, Mr. Sunak expressed regret about appointing him.

The uproar over Mr. Williamson overshadowed Mr. Sunak’s smooth debut on the global stage. At the United Nations’ climate conference in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, on Monday, he embraced President Emmanuel Macron of France, prompting talk of a new “bromance” across the English Channel, after years in which Britain and France bickered over migrants, fishing rights and post-Brexit rules for Northern Ireland.

Mr. Sunak’s pragmatic diplomatic style has raised hopes that Britain might negotiate an agreement with France to curb the rising flow of asylum seekers who make risky crossings of the channel on small boats. There is cautious optimism that Mr. Sunak might also break a longstanding impasse with the European Union over trade arrangements in Northern Ireland.

On Thursday, he is scheduled to meet the Irish prime minister, Micheál Martin, and become the first British leader since 2007 to attend a meeting of the British-Irish Council, a forum that brings together political leaders from across the British Isles.

“It looks as if, after years of megaphone diplomacy, they’re using actual diplomacy,” said Tony Travers, a professor of politics at the London School of Economics. “Rishi Sunak wants to project calm,” Professor Travers added. “Gavin Williamson’s resignation was not the kind of message he would have wanted.”

Mr. Sunak, he said, was struggling to preside over an unruly Conservative Party, divided into bitterly feuding factions, which had ousted its last two leaders. To rein in those factions, analysts said Mr. Sunak made personnel decisions like appointing Ms. Braverman, an immigration hard-liner who is popular with the party’s right flank. She had served briefly in the same post under Ms. Truss before being dismissed for a security breach.

Still, the decision to name Mr. Williamson was a puzzling error. Downing Street has admitted that Mr. Sunak had been warned of the clash between Mr. Williamson and Ms. Morton, though it said the prime minister was not aware of the content or details of the dispute. Even so, it was always going to be a risk to bring back into government someone with such a tarnished reputation.

As chief whip, Mr. Williamson cultivated the image of a ruthless political operator, keeping a pet tarantula he called Cronus in a glass box on his desk. His power, analysts said, stemmed from knowing where other politicians kept their skeletons, but he also threw his support to Mr. Sunak in a difficult leadership campaign.

For all his attempts to be fearsome, Mr. Williamson did not exude an air of competence as a minister. While defense secretary, he drew ridicule when he said that Russia “should go away” and “shut up.” As education secretary under Mr. Johnson, he presided over chaos in the school examination system during the coronavirus pandemic.

His promotion — as well as Ms. Braverman’s restoration to the cabinet — seemed mainly a reward for help in securing Mr. Sunak’s victory in the party’s leadership contest to succeed Ms. Truss. Some analysts said that, because Mr. Sunak’s staff ran a slick social media campaign while he was chancellor of the Exchequer, colleagues overlooked some of his political weaknesses.

“People mistook social media savvy with political savvy which is something different,” Professor Bale said. “You can run a good Instagram account if you hire a few good 20-somethings, but they are not going to help you in the bear pit of Westminster politics.”

Mr. Sunak’s biggest test comes next week when the government will outline how it intends to fill a hole in the nation’s finances estimated at £50 billion, $57 billion. Closing that shortfall, he has warned, will require unpopular tax increases and cuts in public spending programs — choices that will darken an already grim winter as Britain faces rampant inflation, rising interest rates, a looming recession and possible energy shortages.

Whether this harsh medicine revives Britain’s economy will likely determine whether the Conservatives have any chance of winning the next general election, which must take place by January 2025. For now, analysts said, Mr. Sunak still looks secure.

“With the departure of Gavin Williamson, the rest of the government looks more stable than the end of the Johnson government or the Liz Truss government,” Professor Travers said. But he said he could not rule out another leadership coup, “given the ruthlessness of the party.”