It Is Shocking That Someone So Naive Nearly Became PM

I hope that readers heeded my advice a year ago to "sell their Sunaks” when his market valuation was artificially inflated by the unsustainable fiscal generosity demanded by the pandemic.

- Vince Cable

The revelation that he broke lockdown rules along with his boss is just the latest mistake. But as someone who spent two decades in the political bear pit of Westminster, I've been shocked that someone so naive and seemingly ignorant of political life has gotten so close to power.

Frivolous though some of the stories around his wife Akshata Murty's tax affairs have seemed, Sunak (or his advisers) must surely have recalled that non-dom status was a source of political scandal just over a decade ago. As one of the pot-stirrers at the time, I vividly recall how such (rather minor) political figures as Michael Ashcroft and Gulam Noon were forced to give up their non-dom status in order join the House of Lords.

Zac Goldsmith, a more serious political figure, was firmly told by David Cameron that he had to choose between a political career and his - inherited - non-dom status (which he then surrendered). An astute political operator like Sajid Javid was smart enough to dump his non-dom status before embarking on a political life (he was also tough enough to walk away from No 10 bullying when he held the position of chancellor).