The Guardian view on the Tory mood: rallying around Sunak

The release of details of Rishi Sunak’s tax returns on Wednesday reveals several things. The first is that the prime minister and those around him think his tax returns are a public relations embarrassment. Many months after promising to do so, Mr Sunak finally slipped the details into the public realm at the very time when the political world was almost wholly focused on Boris Johnson’s confrontation with the Commons privileges committee. It was a shabby trick.

When he became prime minister, Mr Sunak promised that his government would have “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level”. But this was not the act of a leader who is comfortable accounting for his wealth. The release also stopped well short of complete transparency. This very deliberately furtive act was fully in the tradition of the Labour spin doctor’s notorious advice on September 11 that the attacks on the Twin Towers had provided “a good day to bury bad news”.

Mr Sunak’s pitch as prime minister is technocratic, not entitled or ideological. In contrast to his post-Brexit predecessors, he portrays himself as a leader who works hard, gets things done, takes practical decisions and implements them efficiently. Another interest rate rise on Thursday, following an unexpected rise in inflation this week to 10.4%, is a reminder that this is an uphill task.

It makes a mockery of Mr Sunak’s image-making for low-paid voters facing a cost of living crisis to be reminded that their prime minister’s wealth means he took home £4.8m over the past three years, or that his healthily ballooning capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than the incomes of the overwhelming majority of hard-pressed earners. The contrasts are outrageous. Mr Sunak is lucky that Labour, anxious not to appear hostile to aspiration and business, chooses not to criticise his wealth too strongly.

The release of the tax return nevertheless shows that Mr Sunak is becoming confident enough to practice some politically effective black arts. Alastair Campbell would have been proud of the way that the prime minister’s awkward news was slipped out. The contrast between Mr Sunak’s occasionally quite effective Downing Street operation and the shambolic regimes run by Mr Johnson and Liz Truss is increasingly striking.

But the biggest dividend for Mr Sunak this week did not come from his portfolio of shareholdings. It came from the way he was able to face down Mr Johnson’s latest efforts to parade himself as a leader in waiting. Mr Sunak did this by relying on the discipline of most of his backbench MPs. Given the party’s recent history, this was a bold strategy and no small achievement. But it is a telling one. It rests on the fact that, facing a possible electoral defeat, the Tory party seems willing to pull together for Mr Sunak until the election rather than embrace yet another leadership challenge.

The former prime minister made two major miscalculations about the current Tory mood this week. He thought he could make a stand in defence of his handling of Partygate and against the privileges committee inquiry, and that the party would support him. It did not. He also thought his revolt over the Stormont brake in Mr Sunak’s agreement with the EU over Northern Ireland trade would bring backbenchers flocking to his cause. That failed too. The truth is that Mr Johnson has lost some of his galvanising allure for Tories. More intriguingly still, the same may even be happening to Brexit.