'Sunak enjoys helicopter lifestyle while pretending to be on side of motorists'

30 July 2023 , 20:26

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Rishi Sunak is no stranger to a helicopter ride (Image: BACKGRID)

Rishi Sunak is a fake. He enjoys a helicopter lifestyle while pretending to be on the side of the motorists he looks down upon. The PM with his head in the clouds will fight in the gutter to retain the keys to Downing Street.

No smear will be too dirty and no blow too low for a Tory who poses as principled and concerned, but in reality is a huckster desperate for votes. If that requires letting the planet burn, so be it. Even Sunak’s closest friends and most trenchant supporters admit that he doesn’t really care about the environment. Perhaps when you’ve as much loot as this PM, you don’t. The rich often buy their way out of trouble, after all.

David Cameron greenwashed the Tory party by hugging a husky and introducing a fuzzy tree logo before dumping the “green crap”. Boris Johnson genuinely cared about the natural world but was a fossil fool, scorched by lies.

Sunak’s playing with fire by failing to grasp that folk do care about the world they are leaving for their children and grandchildren. Where he’s closer to the money is that struggling people don’t want to be charged the Earth to save the Earth.

And it’s here that Keir Starmer’s realising he must play clever politics – although not by opposing the ULEZ charge on choking, older vehicles in London or any bit of the country. That was a knee-jerk reaction to a unique Uxbridge by-election.

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Ed Miliband, to his credit, has been banging this drum for years and produced Labour’s £28billion green prosperity plan. While it has been put slightly on the back burner recently by Starmer, it proves, for example, how onshore wind turbines reduce electricity bills a s well as create jobs.

It’s the economics of the environment that will be crucial, demonstrating how sustainability will renew communities. So the politician who paints a vivid picture of the future will win wallets as well as hearts. Starmer’s no idealist, but he’s better placed to triumph than a Sunak who is out of touch with the little people below him.

Kevin Maguire