'Karma bit Rishi Sunak in the butt' Andy Richardson on the Tories' disastrous election campaign

Rishi Sunak stole the initiative in the general election by lying during a televised debate.

He had used a dubious and disputed figure claiming that Labor would raise taxes by an amount that had as much to do with reality as a unicorn offering 350 million to the NHS if we all voted to visit the sunny Brexit highlands.

For a moment it seemed plausible, like all the best untruths.

Because, as Mark Twain would have written, a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes. And Rishi Sunak telling millions that Labor had a secret plan to raise taxes seemed to be true until it turned out that a group of Tory election experts had cooked up the figure and it This was a proverbial electoral smear.

Still, he did his job. In a dirty election, Rishi had found a way to turn the tide, no matter how dark, unethical and wrong it was.

And then karma bit him in the butt. His lack of political acumen came back to haunt him as he abandoned the people who had fought for our freedom, walking out of a D-Day ceremony to record an interview with ITV. Well done, Rishi. Thank you for showing your true colors.

As for own goals, it was on par with Gordon Brown's angry response to Gillian Duffy, then 65, whom he called a bigoted woman, after she tackled over the party's immigration policy.

It was as cowardly as Boris Johnson hiding in a fridge rather than answering questions on Good Morning Britain. It was as lame as Theresa May invoking a dementia tax while bottling her 2017 snap election, as idiotic as Neil Kinnock taking victory for granted in 1992, as absurd as John Prescott hitting a man with a mullet in 2001.

And that’s the story of Rishi Sunak’s election.

The one whose team organized a press conference near the Titanic, who was photographed under the exit signs of a plane, whose team did not equip him with an umbrella when he announced his election and who showed his special relationship to the truth by castigating Labor. non-existent plans called for a double-barreled shotgun to blast holes in his own feet.

The fallout was numerous and rapid. Penny Mourdant, the woman who likes to yell at her political opponents and who is eyeing Rishi's job in a few weeks, told the nation how wrong he was.

Rishi canceled press sessions scheduled for the next day because journalists' access was restricted, lest they ask him why he was a free-for-all, incompetent and unempathetic.

And Sir Keir Starmer has done what Sir Keir Starmer does best: let the Conservative Party self-sabotage. Why try to kill the ruling party's arguments when it is perfectly capable of doing so itself?

Sir Keir transformed the Labor Party beyond recognition.

It used to be left of center, now it's the Conservative Party in a delicious shade of red. And as we approach a week in which manifestos will be launched and scrutiny will fall on numbers that don't need Rishi's dubious interpretation, the Tories are starting to look like toast.

They made no progress, they gave the Reformers the votes they needed while disrespecting our veterans, Rishis made himself out to be a guy with the strangest relationship with the truth, while the Quarrels within the ranks became increasingly heated.

When Rishi called the election, it seemed just possible that he could at least make it a close vote. As the days pass, these hopes seem more and more distant.

This is not because of any stellar performance by the Labor Party, but rather the abject incompetence of a multi-millionaire leader whose skills have been found wanting.

There will be more photo ops, more debates and more opportunities for Labor and Conservative politicians to argue with each other over increasingly tedious and outrageous debates.

But it looks like Rishi's run is already over. Veterans have given so much and sacrificed everything. Rishi didn't bother to sacrifice an afternoon. His celebration is like a toast.