Rishi Sunak's tree code: what is the PM's election strategy?

Conservative leader lining up major policy announcements in bid to rebrand as 'change' candidate

Rishi Sunak gives speeech in front of a lecturn that reads, 'long-term decisions for a bright future'
What some are describing as 'Rishi 2.0' began with a speech announcing delays to climate targets
(Image credit: WPA Pool/Getty)

More than 17 years after then Tory leader David Cameron replaced the party's torch logo with an oak tree, Rishi Sunak appears to have taken the idea a step further.

The prime minister has a new list priorities for the "second phase" of his premiership, said The Times, and such was "the desire for secrecy" – "and no little paranoia" – surrounding the projects that Downing Street has used codenames based on trees. What "some are describing as Rishi 2.0" began last week with the reveal of "Project Cedar": the "significant watering down of green policies on the route to net zero".

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us

Elliott Goat is a freelance writer at The Week Digital. A winner of The Independent's Wyn Harness Award, he has been a journalist for over a decade with a focus on human rights, disinformation and elections. He is co-founder and director of Brussels-based investigative NGO Unhack Democracy, which works to support electoral integrity across Europe. A Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow focusing on unions and the Future of Work, Elliott is a founding member of the RSA's Good Work Guild and a contributor to the International State Crime Initiative, an interdisciplinary forum for research, reportage and training on state violence and corruption.