Former England cricket captain Sir Andrew Strauss made scathing comments about the lack of loyalty of Tory MPs to Rishi Sunak in the run up to his general election defeat in 2024.
Strauss, previously tipped to become a Tory MP, revealed he “didn’t fancy” Sunak’s chances in No 10 after the cricketer gave a pep talk to Conservative MPs at a boozy event hosted by the former prime minister.
Embattled Mr Sunak’s aim was to use Sir Andrew’s record in uniting a divided England cricket team to beat Australia to persuade Conservative MPs they could beat Labour if they put an end to internal infighting, according to Sir Anthony Seldon’s new book, Sunak at 10, the last Conservative PM?, which is being serialised in The Independent.
Strauss told them the key to success for political parties and sports teams alike was to stop being “dysfunctional” and “collaborate” instead of squabbling
However, Sir Andrew was decidedly unimpressed by the response of Tory MPs at an ‘away day’ at the £400-a-night Fairmont Hotel in Windsor in March 2023.
open image in gallery“Strauss’s speech cast a spotlight on a question: did MPs want to follow Sunak’s lead? Even Strauss was left reflecting,” the book says.
Recalling the event in an interview for the book, Sir Andrew told Seldon: “It is much easier to build a team if everyone is working towards a common goal. I didn’t fancy the dressing room Sunak was working with.”
The year following his pep talk to them, Mr Sunak’s Conservatives suffered the Party’s biggest ever election defeat after a campaign marked by continued dissent.
Seldon says Sir Andrew’s message to Tory MPs had been “pitch perfect”.
Sir Andrew, who has raised funds for the Conservatives in the past, told them: “If the team environment is not good, then all you have is eleven heads bobbing up and down in an ocean of fear and self-interest.
open image in gallery“Teams, whether they be sports teams or corporate teams or, dare I say it, political teams are inherently dysfunctional… It is therefore up to the leaders of these teams… to get them motivated by something that isn’t in their own limited self-interest.’
Sir Andrew concluded by repeating a quotation often attributed to Charles Darwin: “In the long history of humankind those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed”.
Seldon says former Tory MP Sir Robert Buckland sang Gilbert and Sullivan songs – while Mr Sunak “chatted to MPs, Diet Coke clutched in hand, till 3 am”.
Sir Andrew’s fears about the Tory ‘dressing room’ turned out to be well founded. His comments reflected his own bitter experience as England captain concerning a feud with star batter Kevin Pietersen.
Pietersen was dropped from the England team playing South Africa in 2012 after it emerged he had criticised Sir Andrew in text messages to members of the South African team.
When Sir Andrew later became England Cricket Director, he ruled out an international recall for Pietersen saying he posed a “massive trust issue”.
Seldon says that while Sir Andrew was unimpressed by Tory MPs, he was “greatly impressed” with Sunak’s manners – and that after his speech MPs “repaired excitedly to the bar, where drink flowed freely”.
Four months after the ‘away day,’ cricket loving Mr Sunak presented Sir Andrew with an award at Lords cricket ground for his charity work with the Ruth Strauss foundation, set up in honour of his late wife Ruth, who died of cancer.
Extracted from ‘Sunak at 10: The Last Conservative Prime Minister?’ by Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton, Atlantic Books. On sale 27 August, hardback, £25