Rishi Sunak’s political hero, the former chancellor Nigel Lawson, used to be fond of saying: “To govern is to choose.” It is a lesson Sunak has taken to heart with mixed success.
As 2024 dawns, it will soon be the electorate’s turn to choose, and their decision will be shaped by work going on behind the scenes for both the Tories and Labour.
Had the prime minister made a different choice at a meeting in July, the Tory campaign might have looked very different. That month, in utmost secrecy, Dominic Cummings, the former campaign director of Vote Leave and architect of Boris Johnson’s election victory in 2019, travelled to North Yorkshire to see Sunak. It was an audience hidden even from several members of
