New political adviser

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has appointed his close friend, political analyst for the weekly magazine The Spectator and The Times columnist James Forsyth, as his political assistant. This was reported by The Guardian newspaper.

According to the newspaper, James Forsyth's main task as prime minister's political secretary will be to coordinate internally between the prime minister's office and MPs to ensure the ruling Conservative Party is more united ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections.

The Guardian wrote that the prime minister's new adviser could focus on a number of issues that could show the Tories' appeal in the eyes of voters. For example, it could be on topics such as migration, the health care crisis, and training problems, a shortage of which has been felt since Britain left the EU.

A recent opinion poll by The Observer newspaper in mid-December showed the Conservatives trailing the opposition Labour Party by 14 percentage points, with only 29% of those polled willing to cast their votes for the Tories.

Forsyth is married to former prime minister Boris Johnson's press secretary Allegra Stratton. She left her post last December in the wake of the 10 Downing Street vespers scandal.

According to The Independent, Sunak and Forsyth went to private Winchester College together, are godfathers to each other's children, and at Forsyth and Stratton's wedding the current prime minister was the groom's best man.

The journalist's recent columns in Spectator are devoted to themes of British domestic politics: the position of the Conservative Party, the Labour programme, and the Scottish referendum. He has also written about a project to build a new Japanese-British fighter jet.