Rishi Sunak has been Prime Minister for nearly 100 days – but what has Sunak done with his victory since moving into No. 10? Sadly, the answer is very little. Despite enjoying a healthy Commons majority inherited from Boris Johnson’s landslide election victory, no new legislation has been passed and dubious measures from the old regime, like the Online Safety Bill, have been retained. There has been plenty of talk – not least in the five-point plan unveiled in the PM’s first speech of the new year – but not much action.

Sunak has been talking big on what he intends to do

Back in October when he became PM, Sunak pledged to lead a government with ‘integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level’. This implied a welcome change from the chaos and half-truths of the Boris Johnson regime. But simply being squeaky clean isn’t enough: Sunak needs to have an answer to the question of how he has used his time in office to do something. So far, on that metric, he is failing miserably.

Sunak has been talking big on what he intends to do to halve inflation, reduce debt, restore growth, cut NHS waiting times and curb illegal immigration, but it is all jam tomorrow. In terms of real action he has done next to nothing. About his only pledge to hit the headlines was a vague and irrelevant desire to see all school kids study maths until they are 18. What backroom whizz came up with that one? Vote Tory for compulsory maths lessons? No wonder that Labour’s poll lead remains stubbornly high.

Meanwhile, the country has been sinking into a swamp of paralysing strike action which has shut down rail services and left hospitals close to breaking point with real lives at risk.

Although the government has tentatively introduced a bill to limit strikes in the health service, this is a case of much too little and far, far too late. Any sense of urgency from the top is woefully lacking.

The suspicion is growing that the third prime minister in a year is as unequal to the grave crises confronting him as his dethroned predecessors. A smooth air of competence is not enough when the country is crying out for tough leadership and at least the appearance of action. In the crisis facing us rather more than Rishi’s watchwords of ‘integrity, professionalism and accountability’ are needed – and they are needed now.

It is nearly 90 years since US president Franklin D Roosevelt was inaugurated in March 1933 on a mission to rescue the US from the depths of the Great Depression. FDR had won a landslide victory promising Americans a ‘New Deal’ to cut unemployment and save capitalism itself.

‘The only thing we have to fear’ .. he famously said .. ‘… is fear itself’.

He was as good as his word. Summoning Congress into special session, in his first 100 days in office no fewer than 77 new laws were passed to stimulate the flatlining economy, initiate huge public works, and provide minimum benefits for the sick and elderly. It took years and a world war to finally turn America around, but a decisive start had been made and seen to be made. Sunak could learn a lot from FDR’s example.