I was ready for Rishi but he wasn’t ready for me
An email arrives from the Ready4Rish! media team late on Monday afternoon. Would I like to go to Rishi Sunak’s leadership launch at the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre the following morning? Hell, yes. I couldn’t think of anything better. I was Ready 4 Rish!
Only it turned out that Rish! was far from Ready 4 me. An hour or so later, I got a reply. Thanks but no thanks. The venue was already at capacity. Another time. Maybe. Or maybe not.
Several hours later I hear from a colleague on a more Tory-friendly paper that he applied to go long after I sent my email and had been welcomed in with open arms. I wrote back to complain and give Sunak’s media team the chance to reconsider. Instead they doubled down. They didn’t seem bothered they had lied to me about the room being full. I wasn’t invited. End of.
It got worse on the morning of Sunak’s launch. Two sketch writers from other less critical papers were let in on the nod. And they hadn’t even bothered to go through the process of applying. On the inside, the room was crowded but far from at capacity. There was space for plenty more. Including me.
So it was personal. And the frontrunner to be our next prime minister was running scared. Rish! was so thinned-skinned he couldn’t even take a bit of criticism or gentle piss-taking. And at heart was against a free press. So much for the man who claims to love democratic values.
Shortly before Rish!’s event went live, Grant Shapps announced he was abandoning his own campaign – a loss to entertainment if not the country – and would be backing Sunak.
He was greeted with loud whoops by enthusiastic apparatchiks waving Ready4Rish! placards. Sunak kept rather more silent about his endorsement from Norman Lamont. No former chancellor
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