It has been a topsy-turvy year for Rishi Sunak, who has faced a mountain to climb after being elected (not really) as the leader of the Conservative Party in the wake of Liz Truss’s disastrous 49 days at the helm.
A planned address from the prime minister on immigration was quietly canned this week by Number 10 amid concerns that the government’s “stop the boats” plan could be in crisis.
Rishi Sunak had been expected to make a statement in December outlining progress on the Rwanda deportation scheme and plans to house asylum seekers in ships such as the Bibby Stockholm and in former barracks, Whitehall sources have told the Guardian.
But the planned speech has been shelved after Conservative party splits over the Rwanda bill, the suspected suicide of an Albanian man on the Bibby Stockholm in Portland, Dorset, and a failure to place asylum seekers in large numbers into surplus MoD accommodation.
The PM’s pledge to reduce debt and grow the economy have also been left in dire straits, teeing Ian Hislop up for this devastating analysis of his time in charge:
Related: Ministers brag as Network North funds used to fix roads… in London
