So, we have a new Prime Minister, the third in as many months.  Again, I don’t wish ill on anyone starting out, the future of this country is very important.

Here is my dilemma, though, I don’t think Rishi Sunak is “in touch” or remotely understands the lives of ordinary people.  He’s never shown any evidence of it before and I don’t anticipate to see it start now.  So I am afraid my expectations already aren’t very high.

This is, after all, someone who, when addressing the cost of living crisis on the struggling, refused to uprate universal credit in line with inflation. He also tried to ignore Marcus Rashford’s very justified campaign over free school meals during school holidays.

And any break from the past is completely belied by his choice to resurrect some figures such as Suella Braverman (Henry Smith’s original first announced choice for Prime Minister, it has to be said), who was forced to resign less than a fortnight before by the previous incumbent for security breaches.  So much for “integrity at every level”.

Far from a government of all the talents, this is a coalition of factions and failure. The Tories have put their Party first and the country second.

No doubt, too, there’s going to be an impressive exercise in history being rewritten by the Tory party to portray Sunak as being a good Chancellor.  He simply wasn’t.

His failures as Chancellor were a disaster for Britain. He failed to grow the economy, failed to get a grip on inflation, and failed to help families with the Tory cost of living crisis.

The Tories crashed the economy and they are going to make working people pay the price.

Rishi Sunak as PM is going to do what he always does: make working people pay through higher taxes and cuts to services.  I dread to think what lies ahead.

The country need a fresh start not a pick-and-mix of Cabinet Ministers from the last 12 years of Tory government, but just watch them try to cling on over the next two years.

Cllr Michael Jones

Leader, Crawley Borough Council