Backing Badenoch and Braverman is key to Sunak’s success

What do you do when you are a prime minister presiding over a desperately difficult economic outlook riddled with features that are all but intractable in the short-term? Well, in Rishi Sunak’s case, you find other issues that might persuade people to vote for your party and convincing message-carriers to hammer home the approach you are taking.

Sunak’s cabinet appointments have left fiscal conservatives in charge of the economic repair job while unleashing cultural conservatives on areas such as immigration control and the militant trans agenda.

The reappointment of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary was the biggest talking point and biggest risk Sunak took when forming his new administration. But as he told the Commons in his first appearance at PMQs, he had hired Braverman to focus on 'cracking down on criminals and defending our borders' in contrast to a Labour party he characterised as 'soft on crime and in favour of unlimited immigration'.

The sight of Kemi Badenoch sitting next to him – still International Trade Secretary but now in command of the equalities brief too – underlined another message: unlike Boris Johnson, Sunak will not be queasy about getting stuck in on what some like to pretend is a 'culture war' started by those on the right. Her decision to use her first parliamentary appearance in the role to respond to her critics gave a taste of what is to come from Badenoch.

But for Sunak, striking poses is one thing. Allowing his ministers to make substantial and controversial changes in their bailiwicks is quite another. The months ahead will tell us whether he is prepared to brave the establishment rage which will follow if he backs Braverman and Badenoch to advance their policy agendas at high velocity.

Bringing back Michael Gove to oversee the levelling-up agenda – after a theatrical but mercifully brief renouncing of frontline politics by the 'Tory Peter Mandelson' – tells us that Sunak does not intend to let himself be characterised as sacking the red wall and returning to comfy Home Counties Conservatism either.

In combination, these three appointments show the Prime Minister will attempt to secure an unlikely fifth successive term in office for the Conservatives. He intends to do so by stitching together the electoral coalition that Dominic Cummings and others steered Johnson towards but was then so carelessly allowed to slip away.

It is a high-risk strategy. Particularly in the case of Braverman, given the propensity of some civil servants to make life difficult for any Home Secretary seeking to break their failed orthodoxies on policing, immigration and plenty else besides.

Elsewhere in his cabinet, Sunak seems to have come up with a judicious blend of rewarding competent allies – Mark Harper, Dominic Raab, Oliver Dowden, Mel Stride, Steve Barclay – while keeping in place (for now, at least) Boris-backers, such as James Cleverly and Ben Wallace, who together form a rock-solid partnership when it comes to thwarting Russia’s war in Ukraine. Nadhim Zahawi also survives. Therese Coffey and Penny Mordaunt were both offered enough to stay on board, although in the case of the latter only just.

Unlike Braverman, who played a tricky hand brilliantly in getting back her great office of state so soon, Mordaunt played a strong hand poorly by attempting to thwart Sunak’s victory long after it was clear she would not be able to. While she is good at being Leader of the Commons, given her despatch box punchiness, the aftermath of the latest contest has not seen her break into the top four or even the top six of Conservative politicians, as she must have hoped it would.

Overall, Sunak’s team is rather male-heavy, with just a hint of the Edwardian gentlemen’s club vibe that characterised the cabinet during the Cameron-Clegg coalition. A bewildering array of ministers seem to have won the right to attend cabinet without having full cabinet rank. This includes several MPs whose ability to remain discreet about confidential or unappetising policy decisions is to say the least unproven. Johnny Mercer and Gavin Williamson being the most obvious examples of this.

But given the ruinous factionalism that gripped the Tories in Parliament right up until the moment of his victory, Sunak has been deft at putting together a team that can be said to represent all wings of the party.

We're nearing the end of mid-term and the start of the run-in towards the next election. Sunak's appointments suggest that his big idea is to try and scrap his way to a score draw – or possibly a no-score draw – on the economy, while reinvigorating the notion of levelling-up and winning handsomely on emotive cultural and social issues such as illegal immigration.

If all that looks like an outside bet, then remember that a very similar approach was taken by Vote Leave in the EU referendum. Look what happened then.