'I'm straining every sinew': PM committed to five pledges but says by-elections will be 'difficult'

By-elections this week will be difficult, Rishi Sunak admitted, as the Conservatives battle to save seats in three crunch local polls. Harry Horton reports

Words by ITV News Westminster Producer, Lucy McDaid

Rishi Sunak has said he is "straining every sinew" to deliver on his five key pledges, and admitted this week's by-elections will be "difficult" for the Conservative Party to win.

Speaking to ITV News, the prime minister managed expectations ahead of Thursday's electoral tests, which many will view as an indication of the way the wind is blowing ahead of a general election.

"Midterm by-elections for an incumbent government are always difficult," he said, adding: "I don't expect these to be any different from that."

Tory MPs have echoed a similar but much starker sentiment, with one telling ITV News that the Party's chances in the Conservative constituency of Selby and Ainsty are "gone."

The other two - Uxbridge and South Ruislip and Somerton and Frome - face takeovers by Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

But Mr Sunak remains committed to delivering on his five priorities, he insisted on Monday, regardless of what the ballot papers bring on Thursday.

"What I will do is continue to work hard to deliver for people and I believe my priorities are the country's priorities.

"We all want to see progress on those things as quickly as possible. I know that's not always as easy as people would like, I want to be honest about the challenges we face in doing that, but people should know I am 100 per cent straining every sinew to deliver on those things for the country."

'I'm 100% straining every sinew to deliver on those things," says Rishi Sunak, ahead of three upcoming by-elections

The assurances from the prime minister, who spoke to ITV News during a visit to an east London school, came as progress on his priorities is well and truly under the spotlight.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the latest CPI figure was 8.7%.

If Mr Sunak is going to achieve his pledge of halving it by the end of the year, it needs to fall to around 5.3% over the next five months.

In an interview with LBC, he admitted it's taking "longer than any of us would like" but insisted he is the right person to bring it down.

But in another blow to the pledges, last week the NHS waiting list for routine treatment reached another record high of 7.47 million people.

And the government is also facing a legal battle with the Supreme Court in a bid to get migrant flights taking off for Rwanda - a flagship policy shaping the 'stop the boats' pledge, again seeming slow to show any success.

ITV News asks: 'How will universities fund themselves if they have to reduce places?'

What the prime minister wanted to talk about on Monday was changes to university courses, announcing proposals to restrict the number of places on "low quality" courses and boost apprenticeships.

His critics argue that the plans will unfairly impact disadvantaged pupils, but Mr Sunak claims they send the message that you "don't have to go to university to succeed in life."

When asked by ITV News what impact the reduction in numbers could have on university finances, the prime minister said: "I think it's important the system is also fair for taxpayers.

"Ultimately, it's tax payers that fund the system and we've got a situation at the moment where around half of people who go to university don't end up paying back the cost of that degree, and that costs the taxpayer money."

Taking questions from the prime minister's official spokesperson on Monday, journalists were unable to get specific examples of which university courses the government deems "poor quality."

The line from Downing Street is that courses with high dropout rates and poor employment outcomes will be targeted by an independent regulator, while fees for classroom-based foundation year courses will be reduced to £5,760 from more than £9,000.

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know...