When Rishi Sunak resigned as Boris Johnson’s chancellor in July, Westminster lobbyists whispered that the real reason was a disagreement about austerity ahead of a looming speech on the economy.
Johnson, so the rumour went, was against austerity and keen to stick to the agenda set by his 2019 manifesto. Sunak, it was said, wanted to be, as he saw it, “more realistic”.
In his resignation letter, Sunak alluded to this difference of opinion, talking about private disagreements and the need to “make sacrifices and take difficult decisions” in order to achieve a “low tax, high growth economy”.
