Swishy Rishi sweeps in with goodies before honesty kicks in

A year ago, an unforeseen phenomenon engulfed British politics. Expected to be a temporary shock, this force has dominated the government’s agenda ever since. And on Wednesday we saw him in the flesh: Rishi Sunak — the man, the Instagram account, the people’s pay cheque.

Sunak has become Britain’s most popular leading politician, simply by funnelling several hundred billion pounds to voters and businesses. Why did no one else think of that?

Delivering his second Budget, he tried to strike a balance. He was still Swishy Rishi, the guy who tops up your monthly salary, but he was also Honest Rishi, dropping hints about the benefits of independence. He wasn’t asking you to move out of his flat, he was merely asking if you wanted to move out. Maybe to somewhere up-and-coming, like Leeds or Darlington.

Swishy Rishi offered another £65bn of coronavirus support this year and next. He’d talked about fiscal discipline before the Budget, but no one really believed he would keep all his powder dry. There was line after line of goodies: extensions to the furlough scheme, the stamp duty holiday, the VAT cut, the uplift in universal credit, and help for the self-employed. He promised government-guaranteed 95 per cent mortgages. There would even be a shift to “well-paid jobs”. Boris Johnson, currently struggling to finance a home refit, nodded enthusiastically at the last bit.

Then came Honest Rishi, announcing that, sadly, income tax thresholds would be frozen, and corporation tax raised, although not until 2023. “We are not hiding it,” he said. “I have been and always will be honest with the country about the challenges we face.” Johnson now looked nervous at this innovative approach to government communications.

The prime minister needn’t have been. A cynic would say that claiming honesty is the highest form of political deception. Honest Rishi wanted to appear more transparent than his predecessors Gordon Brown and George Osborne. But he still kept his secrets.

This was an honest Budget — unless you’re someone who thinks that higher fuel duty and insulating homes might be essential to fighting climate change. Or who thinks that the chancellor might want to disclose an interest when relocating part of the Treasury next to his own Yorkshire constituency. Or who knows that freeports aren’t actually a Brexit bonus, because we had several when we were in the EU and they were fairly useless.

Why does Sunak carry this stuff off so much more easily than his boss Johnson? Maybe it’s because he owns a comb. Despite the pandemic, “the fundamentals of our character as a people have not changed — still determined, still generous, still fair,” he said, with the smooth, sunny outlook of someone who hasn’t endured much home-schooling.

Or maybe it’s that Sunak always has a handy slogan. He is too good for the prime minister’s catchphrases — levelling up, build back better, and so on. He invents his own. Last year there was the restaurant subsidy Eat Out to Help Out, whose uptake, ahem, has been correlated to rising coronavirus cases. Honest Rishi didn’t update us on that on Wednesday. Instead he unveiled Help to Grow, not to be confused with the PPE procurement scheme, Help Who You Know.

There was also the “super deduction”, a new tax advantage for companies that bring forward capital spending. If British businesses want to invest in the future, here was their incentive. And if Tory MPs want to invest in the future, well then — there might just be a 40-year-old chancellor who they can bet on. Whether you prefer Swishy Rishi or Honest Rishi, Sunak is here to stay.