Rishi Sunak joins us on the This Morning sofa
In just 18 days time, Britain will have a new Prime Minister. But will it be front runner, Liz Truss, walking into Number 10? Or will it be the man sitting on our sofa today, former Chancellor, Rishi Sunak?
Once the sure bet to lead the Tories after Boris Johnson, he’s now the underdog, behind in the polls of Conservative members. As he continues his battle for the keys to Downing Street, we're joined by Rishi Sunak to answer some of your questions!
Declaring how thrilled he was to be at This Morning, Rishi said, “This is the most exciting interview I’ve done on this campaign… well, because I grew up with Andi! It was the broom cupboard, it was Ed the Duck! That was my childhood… Byker Grove, Blue Peter, Newsround and onto Neighbours…”
When asked if he feels that he has a good chance of winning, Rishi smiled, “Yes, definitely. It’s an enormously positive experience. My story is an amazing one for the country and the fact that I’m even here sitting with you guys at this stage of the race - what a testament to the country. I feel privileged and humbled to have an opportunity to talk about my ideas for the country.”
Rishi addressed some viewers' concerns about inflation and cost of living. He said, “It’s really tough and it is the number one challenge facing the new Prime Minister. My plans, I announced quite a bit of it as Chancellor, and I want to build on that as PM as the situation is worse than we thought, sadly.
"I want to cut VAT off energy bills because that will help everyone and is something you can do quite quickly. That will provide a couple of hundred extra pounds this autumn and winter on top of what I announced as Chancellor which was quite significant.
“But there are two other groups that I think need some extra help on top of that and it's those on the lowest incomes, about a third of our society, and also pensioners. Those two groups I want to provide extra financial support for. They will get extra cash, particularly over the winter in something called the ‘winter fuel payment’ and that will help during a really tricky period.
“Can I make these things happen quickly? Yes.”
Andi: “If you get into office will you make those things happen?”
Rishi: “One hundred percent. People saw me during the pandemic at a time when there was enormous anxiety and concerns over their jobs and families, and I stepped up and created something that nonoe knew about [furlough] and it worked. And I will do that again. People should have the certainty that I will do that, they’ve got the confidence, they’ve seen me in action before… and those are my values.
“I want to make sure that we particularly look after the most vulnerable in our society and I can guarantee that all the things I’ve just told you about will happen… that’s how you restore trust in government and politics. I’d rather lose than say things I don’t think can be delivered.”
He went on to say, “I think it’s really risky for the government to borrow an enormous amount of money and pump that into the economy… that’s what happened in the 70s, but it’s a big gamble… if the government just embark on a spree of borrowing tens and tens of billions of pounds, that means that inflation could get worse. I don’t want to repeat that mistake of the 70s, and I would be really worried about plans that suggest that’s what we should do.”
On his resignation, Rishi explained, “It was for me a really tough decision. It was a personal decision. It was a sad decision. I’m proud of what I achieved in government with the Prime Minister but at the end it was clear that PM and I had different views on how to manage the economy and we were due to give a big speech on it the next week and there was a bit of an ethical issue that I couldn't defend anymore. I’ve reached out to him [Boris], but understandably he’s not replied.”
On the recent comments made by Liz Truss about British workers needing ‘more graft’, Rishi said, “I don’t think that’s the issue at the moment. People are working their socks off to provide for their families at the moment…”
At the end of the interview, Rochelle said, “We should also say that we have reached out to Liz Truss for an interview…”