British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has marked his hundredth day in 10 Downing Street — but where can his embattled government go now?
Sunak faces a series of major challenges, some inherited from his forebears and some of his own making.
The economy is entering 'technical' recession as double-digit inflation — fuelled by western sanctions and embargoes on Russian energy, food and fertiliser exports — has caused businesses to shut down and suppressed demand.
His government faces an ongoing wave of strikes across both the public and private sectors, while insisting it cannot afford to raise pay offers to match double-digit inflation.
Sunak has also been unable to reverse the rapid polling collapse that followed Boris Johnson's resignation in July following mass resignations from his cabinet — led by Sunak himself.
It was Johnson who led the Conservatives to a landslide victory in the December 2019 snap election on the promise to "get Brexit done" and build a high-skilled, high-wage economy. But Sunak has as chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt, the de-facto leader of the Remain faction in the Tory party who has warned of a new round of austerity measures.
Rows with the European Union over the Northern Ireland Protocol to the post-Brexit withdrawal agreement are rumbling on, even as the UK claims unshakeable unity with Europe on military support for Ukraine.
“We are under no illusion – there are many traps ahead,” an anonymous Downing Street source said. “We have Northern Ireland, the budget – both times when we may have to find a way to bring colleagues with us when they might not be always be inclined to.”
The new PM has already been in office twice as long as his predecessor Liz Truss. She resigned just six weeks into the job under pressure from financial interests in the City of London and Wall Street, who began dumping government bonds in response to her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's autumn mini-budget which reversed many of Sunak's own tax hikes when he held the same cabinet post.
Sunak's leadership circle has already seen two departures. 'Minister without portfolio' Gavin Williamson was forced out in November after angry private mobile phone messages between him and Tory chief whip Wendy Morton were leaked, prompting allegations of bullying on his part.
And earlier this week Sunak sacked former education minister and chancellor of the exchequer Nadhim Zahawi as Conservative Party chairman after it emerged he had failed to disclose a long-running tax dispute with His Majesty's Revenue and Customs — which he settled last year for a reported sum of £4.8 million, including a 30 per cent fine for late payment.
Justice Secretary and deputy PM Dominic Raab is also under investigation for allegedly bullying civil servants — although one claimed incident involved him picking tomatoes out of his salad at a lunchtime meeting and throwing them noisily into a plastic bag. Losing the deputy prime minister would not invoke a constitutional crisis, since the post is a semi-official honorary title with no fixed duties.