Sunak V Johnson: How have the Tory leaders handled scandal?

In brief…

• Sunak continues to be grilled over his handling of the allegations his closest aides placed bets on the date he would set the election.
• But he is not only the Tory Prime Minister to preside over a scandal under their premiership
• Boris Johnson’s tenure was also mired in scandal, and the two leaders could be more similar than we first thought.

Rishi Sunak has said he was “incredibly angry” to learn that some of his closest aides placed bets on the 4 July election date.Yet it took the Prime Minister days to pull his support for two Tory candidates who admitted to doing so.

His handling of the “Gambleshambles” affair that has rocked that campaign has been labeled as a disaster by critics.

But scandals are nothing new in politics, and perhaps nobody knows this better than Boris Johnson.

There was Partygate, lobbying, and sexual assault allegations to name a few. Eventually, this led to his downfall.

Sunak stood on the steps of Downing Street and said the Tories had left all that behind, but it now looks as though he was very wrong indeed.

But has he dealt with the politics of scandal better than Johnson?

Here’s what the News Agents think.

Well…not really, says Emily Maitlis, who argues Sunak is “mirroring exactly the kind of behaviour that we saw two Prime Ministers ago”.

She says: “What we saw from Boris Johnson time after time was this urge to support , to find his own loyalty to people that were in his party.

“He didn’t want to throw them out, he didn’t want to create a scene, he wanted everything to carry on.”

Jon Sopel argues there is a slight difference between the two Tory leaders.

He says: “I wouldn’t say it’s the same kind of behaviour because it came from a different place.

“Boris was a knave, and I think Rishi Sunak is a bit of a fool in terms of politics.”

And that is why Sunak has handled the gambling scandal so badly, Sopel argues.

He adds: “We were saying days ago that if you do not get ahead of the story, it will come and run you over, and it’s come and run him over.”

“For some reason, Rishi Sunak does not see the trajectory of these things so is making tactical decisions. But the strategy should be to clear it up as fast as possible.

What has Sunak actually done since the ‘gamblehshambles’ affair erupted?

Sunak has withdrawn support for two candidates in his inner circle - Craig Williams and Laura Saunders - amid an investigation by the Gambling Commission.

But it took days for the Prime Minister to do so despite mounting pressure.

He said Tories were launching their own investigation into allegations internally.

And “as a result of ongoing internal enquiries”, the party is no longer able to support either candidate.

What did Boris Jonson do when scandals broke out?

Johnson was aware of an investigation into Chris Pincher over groping allegations, but still decided to appoint him as deputy chief whip.

He apologised, but it came too late as two members of his cabinet, including Rishi Sunak, resigned.

While this eventually led to his downfall, it looked like the straw that broke the camel’s back.

It came after he attempted to alter the rules to stop then-Conservative MP Owen Paterson from being suspended over breaking lobbying rules.

The takeaway?

It appears as though neither leader has been able to get a hold of a crisis particularly well.

But the gambling affair is one that “voters understand”, says Maitlis.

She adds: “If it was in your power to get your bets right, why wouldn’t you?”

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents podcast now.