Ready for Rishi in January: How The Independent revealed Sunak’s PR-led campaign for Tory leader
The former chancellor has launched a leadership campaign, vowing to ‘restore trust’ and ‘reunite the country’
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Rishi Sunak has launched his bid to become the new Tory leader with a slick PR-led campaign confirming plans that were first reported by The Independent in January.
Mr Sunak is the most-prominent MP to join the race since Boris Johnson announced his resignation on Thursday, with Liz Truss and Jeremy Hunt expected to follow him over the weekend.
He threw his hat into the ring at 4:16pm on Friday, posting a glossy video titled “Ready for Rishi” on his social media channels and linking to a website of the same name.
The Independent first revealed the former chancellor’s leadership ambitions in January when we reported that Mr Sunak had built a draft version of a campaign website, taking inspiration from his weekly No 11 newsletter, and developed a marketing strategy.
Sources told The Independent’s Anna Isaac at the time that “there’s no question that Rishi and his team have got everything in place.” They noted that there is a clear communications plan, and that a copy for a website had been drafted and was ready to set live.
Cass Horowitz, a special adviser to Mr Sunak, who was widely credited with building the former chancellor’s online brand, was thought to have been central to the preparations.
A former No 10 staffer told The Independent that Mr Horowitz was regarded as a “boy genius” by many in the Conservative party for his use of social media.
“He’s built a data dashboard from the newsletter. Every click and share will be informing the wider leadership campaign. He’s got form on watching for any online grassroot sentiment to tap into,” they said.
The ex-staffer said that a Twitter account called “Ready for Rishi” (@ForRishi) set hares running at No 10 when it first appeared in September 2020. A tweet posted on 27 January and pinned to the top of its profile, read: “Time for a leader who doesn’t break the rules #readyforrishi”.
At the time, a source close to Mr Sunak denied that the Richmond MP had prepared a leadership campaign - branding the suggestion “totally false”.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments