Rishi Sunak has shredded the pledges he made in his failed leadership campaign

It’s one thing for a prime minister to abandon the promises they made when they were engaged in pursuit of the leadership. Indeed, in recent times the nation has seen some notable examples of this – among the most prominent being Boris Johnson’s cheerful insouciance about keeping his word on anything, and Liz Truss’s forced junking of her economic plan.

In the case of Rishi Sunak, however, we have the unusual example of a leader shredding a series of pledges made as part of a failed leadership campaign. To be fair to Mr Sunak, he didn’t say anything at all to journalists – not even “Good morning” – during his most recent bid to be leader, when he was elected unopposed. He merely pledged to fix the mess, which is what anyone would have had to do, including Ms Truss had she been allowed to continue in post.

Either way, he now wants to maximise his freedom of manoeuvre. This is not an encouraging sign. It suggests that there may be some truth in the chilling rumours about what the autumn statement will contain – that is to say, around £50bn in tax hikes and public spending cuts on top of those already announced by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, when he tore up Ms Truss’s mini-Budget.