Skip to main content
NEU Senior Regional Support Officer
Sunak's ‘populist’ rebrand – can it work?
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty, holding baby Henry McGowan, 6 months, during their visit to Burnley Boys And Girls Club, Barden Playing Fields in Burnley, ahead of the start of the Conservative Party annual conference at Manchester Central, October 1, 2023

SOCIALISTS might roll their eyes at Rishi Sunak’s bid to rebrand himself as a man who wants to change Britain.

The calculation is familiar. People are sick of the way things are. They demonstrate it week in, week out in surveys and polls in which they express dissatisfaction with our politics and politicians.

So the way to win their vote is to present yourself as the change candidate. It might seem a difficult makeover for the richest MP in the House of Commons, who is the sitting prime minister and heads a party that has been in power for 13 years.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Re your message in #nujchapel:  If we website looks like shit, no-one is going to take us seriously, or be inclined to subscribe - that's why I think we have to prioritise the way it looks, especially when the site (editorial-wise) is largely working.  When it comes to the issues you mentioned to me the other day (word count, curly quotes, bylines), there are quick and easy work arounds for them (copy and paste text into BBedit, Word, Pages, wordcount.com, etc. Leave curly quotes, bylines, etc to the web de
Democracy / 2 July 2025
2 July 2025

From Gaza complicity to welfare cuts chaos, Starmer’s baggage accumulates, and voters will indeed find ‘somewhere else’ to go — to the Greens, nationalists, Lib Dems, Reform UK or a new, working-class left party, writes NICK WRIGHT

Prime Minister Keir Starmer departs 10 Downing Street, London, to attend Prime Minister's Questions at the Houses of Parliament, May 7, 2025
Austerity / 7 May 2025
7 May 2025
Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to members of staff during a visit to Leonardo, a defence contractor in Luton, to launch UAS StormShroud into operational service, May 2, 2025
Features / 4 May 2025
4 May 2025

JOE GILL looks at research on the reasons people voted as they did last week and concludes Labour is finished unless it ditches Starmer and changes course

MILLSTONE: Parts of the Labour Party see Nigel Farage’s Re
Features / 8 February 2025
8 February 2025
You only have to look at the dire polling of Labour’s sister parties in Europe to see that aping the hard right on migration leads to spectacularly bad results, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP