Rishi Sunak's campaign in the UK election showed his lack of political touch

Rishi Sunak’s campaign in the UK election showed his lack of political touch

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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has portrayed himself as thorough and evidence-led throughout his relatively brief political career but there’s always been a nagging question over the keenness of his politcal antenna. (AP video shot by: Kwiyeon Ha / Production by: Theodora Tongas)

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Britain’s outgoing Conservative Party Prime Minister Rishi Sunak looks down as he makes a short speech outside 10 Downing Street before going to see King Charles III to tender his resignation in London, Friday, July 5, 2024. Sunak and his Conservative Party lost the general election held July 4, to the Labour Party, whose leader Keir Starmer is set become Prime Minister later Friday. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

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FILE - Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Ministers’ Questions session in parliament in London, Wednesday, July 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

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Britain’s outgoing Conservative Party Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaking outside 10 Downing Street before going to see King Charles III to tender his resignation in London, Friday, July 5, 2024. Sunak and his Conservative Party lost the general election held July 4, to the Labour Party, whose leader Keir Starmer is set become Prime Minister later Friday. Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty is in the background. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

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FILE - British lawmaker Rishi Sunak, the newly appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer arrives at 10 Downing Street, where he was given the job as the former Chancellor Sajid Javid, resigned, in London, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

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FILE - Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak stands outside No 11 Downing Street as he holds the traditional red box that contains the budget speech for the media, he will then leave to make budget speech to House of Commons, in London, Wednesday, March 11, 2020. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

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FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020 file photo, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, left, leave Downing Street to attend a cabinet meeting in London. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

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FILE - Britain’s Chancellor Rishi Sunak, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chief scientific officer Patrick Vallance give a press briefing about the ongoing situation with the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, inside 10 Downing Street in London, Tuesday, March 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool, File)

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FILE - Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak holds a press conference in the Downing Street briefing room, London, Thursday Feb. 3, 2022. (Justin Tallis/Pool via AP, File)

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FILE - Rishi Sunak meets supporters as he arrives to attend a Conservative Party leadership election hustings at the NEC, Birmingham, England, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira, File)

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FILE - Liz Truss, right, and Rishi Sunak on stage after a Conservative leadership election hustings at Wembley Arena in London, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

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FILE - Rishi Sunak, centre, gestures as conservative MPs greet him after arriving at the Conservative Party leadership contest at the Conservative party Headquarters in London, Oct. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)

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FILE - New British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks at Downing Street in London, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022, after returning from Buckingham Palace where he was formally appointed to the post by Britain’s King Charles III. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

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FILE - Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt visit Accrington Market Hall, Jan. 19, 2023 in Accrington, England. (Christopher Furlong/Pool Photo via AP, File)

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FILE - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a press conference at Downing Street in London, Monday, April 22, 2024. (Toby Melville/Pool Photo via AP, File)

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FILE - Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, left, and Britain’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman, attend a meeting with the local community and police leaders following the announcement of a new police task force to help officers tackle grooming gangs, in Rochdale, England, Monday, April 3, 2023. (Phil Noble/Pool Photo via AP, File)

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FILE - Britain’s King Charles III speaks with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during a reception at Buckingham Palace, London, Nov. 4, 2022, ahead of the COP27 Summit. (Jonathan Brady/Pool Photo via AP, File)

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FILE - Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak right, reaches to shake hands with President of France Emmanuel Macron ahead of a bilateral meeting during the COP27 summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Nov. 7, 2022. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool Photo via AP, File)

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FILE - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and wife Akshata Murty wave after his speech at the Conservative Party annual conference at Manchester Central convention complex in Manchester, England, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Jon Super, File)

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FILE - Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty serve the food to a community group’s lunch club at Mill End Community Centre, as part of the Big Help Out, to mark the crowning of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, in Rickmansworth, England, Monday May 8, 2023. (Geoff Pugh/Pool via AP, FIle)

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FILE - Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty deplane ahead of the G-7 Summit, in Hiroshima, Japan, Thursday, May 18, 2023. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool Photo via AP, File)

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FILE - Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, second right, holds a wreath as he stands with Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, left, former Prime Ministers Liz Truss, third right, and Boris Johnson, right, to attend the Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Cenotaph on Whitehall in London, on Nov. 12, 2023. If opinion polls giving Labour a consistent double-digit lead are borne out on election day, Starmer will become Britain’s first Labour prime minister since 2010. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, Pool, File)

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FILE - U.S. President Joe Biden and Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, left, leave 10 Downing Street after a meeting in London, Monday, July 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

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FILE - An anti-Boris Johnson protester holds up a placard with an image of him and his Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, backdropped by the Elizabeth Tower, known as Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament, in London, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

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FILE - Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, left, attends an in-conversation event with Tesla and SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk in London, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool, File)

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FILE - Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, right, lights the candles with his wife Akshata Murty and daughters to celebrate Diwali at 10 Downing Street in London, Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023. Diwali is known as the Festival of Lights. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

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FILE - Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, center left, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrive for a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool via AP, File)

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FILE - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, left, is welcomed by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during a G7 world leaders summit at Borgo Egnazia, southern Italy, Thursday, June 13, 2024. (Christopher Furlong/Pool Photo via AP, File)

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FILE - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak talks to journalists on his plane as he travels from Northern Ireland to Birmingham during a day of campaigning for this year’s General Election due to be held on July 4, on Friday May 24, 2024. (Henry Nicholls/Pool Photo via AP, File)

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FILE - Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak poses for a photo with children and a trophy as he joins the Chesham United Youth FC during a Conservative general election campaign event in Chesham, England, Monday, May 27, 2024.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant, Pool, File)

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FILE - Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reacts after bowling during a Conservative general election campaign event at the Market Bosworth Bowls Club in Market Bosworth, England, Tuesday, May 28, 2024 . (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, Pool, File)

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FILE - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, right, and West Devon MP Geoffrey Cox, left, ride on a boat in the harbour at Clovelly, England, as they collect lobster pots on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (Leon Neal, Pool Photo via AP, File)

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FILE - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak plays with children as he visits the Imagination Childcare children’s centre during a Conservative general election campaign event in Swindon, Britain, Friday, June 7, 2024. (Phil Noble/Pool Photo via AP, File)

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FILE - Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and David Johnston, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Didcot, Wantage & Wallingford, left, participate in football activities with a local school girls football team at Alfredian Park, home of Wantage Town Football Club, in Wantage, England, Monday June 3, 2024. Since announcing that the UK General Election will be held on July 4th, Rishi Sunak has visited key battleground regions across the UK. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP, File)

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FILE - Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Queen Camilla, King Charles III, President of France Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte Macron during the wreath laying at the UK national commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, held at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, Thursday June 6, 2024. (Gareth Fuller, Pool Photo via AP, File)

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FILE - Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak walks back into 10 Downing Street in London Wednesday, May 22, 2024, after he announced that he is to call a General Election for July 4. Heavy rain fell during his speech. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

By PAN PYLAS

LONDON (AP) — Rishi Sunak’s campaign to remain Britain’s prime minister showed a lack of political touch.

The Conservative Party’s problems were grave before Friday’s resounding election defeat but missteps by Britain’s richest prime minister contributed to its defeat.

Predecessors such as Tony Blair and Boris Johnson were more politically astute and able to connect with voters. As for Sunak, he didn’t have to call the election until January 2025. He defied political advice by doing so in May — with Conservative support dwindling steadily amid an economic slump, ethics scandals and a revolving door of leaders over the last two years — and announced the July 4 date in the pouring rain.

What’s more, the Conservative Party didn’t appear ready for the campaign compared with Labour, and voters haven’t really felt the improvement in Britain’s economy yet.

“I have heard your anger, your disappointment, and I take responsibility for this loss,” Sunak said in his final speech as prime minister outside the residence at 10 Downing St.

Arguably, Sunak’s biggest blunder — one that prompted him to apologize and which many analysts think was the final death knell of the Conservative Party’s campaign — was his decision to leave early from the 80-year D-day commemorations in northern France on June 6.

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Critics said the decision to skip the international event that closed the commemorations showed disrespect to the veterans and diminished the U.K.’s international standing. Other world leaders including U.S. President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy all were present. As was Keir Starmer, the U.K.'s new prime minister.

Born in 1980 in Southampton on England’s south coast to parents of Indian descent, Sunak became Britain’s first leader of color and the first Hindu to become prime minister. At 42, he was Britain’s youngest leader for more than 200 years.

A former hedge fund manager at Goldman Sachs who married into a billionaire Indian family, Sunak rose rapidly within Conservative ranks. Now 44, he become Treasury chief on the eve of the coronavirus pandemic. Within weeks, he had to unveil the biggest economic support package of any Chancellor of the Exchequer outside wartime, a package that many saw as saving millions of jobs.

Long a low-tax, small-state politician despite the high-spending nature of that package, Sunak had a record of idolizing former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Smooth, confident and at ease with the march of modern technology, Sunak was dubbed “Dishy Rishi” and quickly became one of the most trusted and popular faces within Johnson’s administration during the rigors of the pandemic.

Johnson was forced to quit in the summer of 2022 after being adjudged to have lied to Parliament over breaches of coronavirus lockdowns at his offices in Downing Street. As if that wasn’t bad enough, trust in the Conservatives tanked further when his successor Liz Truss backed a package of unfunded tax cuts that roiled financial markets and sent borrowing costs surging, particularly for homeowners already struggling with the most acute of cost of living crisis in decades. Her premiership was the shortest in the history of the U.K.

When Sunak replaced Truss, he pitched himself as a stable pair of hands. He constantly reminded voters that he had warned Conservative Party members about the recklessness of Truss’s economic plan when he challenged her to succeed Johnson. The day he replaced Truss after her traumatic 49-day premiership in Oct. 2022, the Conservatives were trailing Labour by around 30 percentage points.

As Treasury chief, Sunak was lauded for rolling out his COVID-19 job retention package that arguably saved millions of jobs. But that came at a cost, bringing the country’s tax burden to its highest level since the 1940s.

In his 21 months as prime minister, Sunak struggled to keep a lid on bitter divisions within his Conservative Party. One side wanted him to be much tougher on immigration and bolder in cutting taxes, while another urged him to move more to the center of politics, the space where, historically, British elections are won.

In his concession speech, Sunak said he would serve a full term in parliament until 2029, and that he would stay on as leader until the Conservative Party has elected a successor.

“It is important that, after 14 years in government, the Conservative Party rebuilds, but also that it takes up its crucial role in opposition professionally and effectively,” he said,

Many think he may be tempted to return to the U.S. in the years to come, perhaps to pursue his interest in artificial technology.

After his school years at Winchester College, one of Britain’s most expensive boarding schools, Sunak went to Oxford University to study politics, philosophy and economics — the degree of choice for future prime ministers. He then got an MBA at Stanford University, which proved to be a launchpad for his subsequent career as a hedge fund manager at Goldman Sachs in the U.S.

There, he met his wife, Akshata Murty, the daughter of the billionaire founder of Indian tech giant Infosys. They have two daughters. The couple are the wealthiest inhabitants yet of No. 10 Downing Street, according to the Sunday Times’ 2024 Rich List, with an estimated fortune of 651 million pounds ($815 million). They’re even richer than King Charles III, a level of wealth that many said left him out of touch with the daily problems of most people.

With his fortune secure, Sunak was elected to Parliament for the safe Tory seat of Richmond in Yorkshire in 2015. In Britain’s 2016 Brexit referendum, he supported leaving the European Union, a “leave” that came unexpectedly and that many Britons today regret.

PAN PYLAS

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