Rishi Sunak says recent tax cuts are 'just the start' of his plans (Image: Steve Bainbridge)
Rishi Sunak has urged voters to stick with his plan and revealed his deep fear the return of Labour would put Britain’s
recovery into reverse.
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The Prime Minister says the nation has “turned a corner” but claims a Sir Keir Starmer government would send taxes
soaring and ensure the “scourge of illegal migration” continues.
In a rallying cry ahead of this week’s local elections, Mr Sunak declared himself the man to give people “peace of mind” and unlock a “brighter future”.
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He promised that recent tax cuts and commitments to reform welfare and boost defence spending are “just the start” of what he has planned.
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Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Express, he said: “I get up every day and I work as hard as I can to deliver on the things that matter to people.”
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Rishi Sunak spoke to the Express while visiting Airbus's facility at Stevenage (Image: Getty)
The PM faces a major test on Thursday with elections for mayors for England’s largest cities, thousands of councillors and police and crime commissioners.
The most recent WeThink polling shows 36 percent of people plan to back Labour in the looming general election, as opposed to 18 percent who will vote for the Tories.
In a direct appeal for the loyalty of voters, Mr Sunak said: “Stick with us and we can deliver a brighter future for you.”
A key ambition is axing National Insurance payments for workers.
Pledging to “keep cutting it until it’s gone,” he said: “It’s a double-taxation on work. It’s unfair, we want hard work to be rewarded and that’s the benefits you get from sticking to the plan.”
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Painting Labour as the party of tax hikes, he pointed to Birmingham City Council’s woes. “Labour bankrupted that local authority and everyone in Birmingham is now having a 21 percent council tax increase as a result,” he said.
“That is the reality of Labour in power. They will put your taxes up because that’s what they always do and the Conservatives cut your taxes and that’s what we’re delivering.”
Mr Sunak’s chances of re-election could well hinge on whether people who backed the Tories in former Labour seats in 2019 stick with his party. He argues Labour is a “threat” to ambitions to level-up the less prosperous parts of the country.
“Labour took many of these places, particularly across the North and the Midlands, for granted,” he said.
He applauds the record of Tory Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen, who is up for election this week. Praising transport improvements, the development of the Teesside Freeport and the creation of new jobs, he said: “When you walk around there, you can see the sense of positivity, of optimism and
confidence about the future.”
Mr Sunak acknowledges the difficulties families have faced in recent years but says what most worries him about a Labour
government is the risk it would send the country “backwards”.
“We’ve had a tough few years. Of course we have,” he said. “Everyone’s experienced that – energy bills, inflation, the pandemic, war in Ukraine. Things have been tough and I accept that but because our plans are working, this year we’ve turned a corner and things are now pointing in the right direction.”
Rattling off causes for encouragement, he said: “You can see most clearly with the economy. Inflation has come down from 11 percent to just over three percent.
“Wages have been rising for several months in a row. Energy bills have fallen by hundreds of pounds. The state pension – important to Express readers – has gone up by ￡900 in this past few weeks and next week everyone in work in their payslips is going to see the benefits of a ￡900 tax cut for an average worker.
“That is our plan in action, working and giving people confidence the future is going to be better. If we stick to that plan, that’s the peace of mind I can deliver.”
Mr Sunak made bringing down NHS waiting lists one of his top priorities but in February there were 7.5 million waits for non-emergency treatment in England.
Again, he states the nation needs to “stick to the plan” – and he says this is an issue close to his heart.
“I worked in my mum’s pharmacy a lot as a kid, saw the benefits of healthcare first hand and saw the different it made to
people’s lives,” he said.
Mr Sunak last week succeeded in getting onto the statute book legislation designed to stop legal challenges derailing his plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing. He is in no doubt what would happen if Labour won power and axed the scheme.
“The scourge of illegal migration would continue,” he said.
Adamant that the plan to send migrants to the African state is key to ending the small-boats crisis, he said: “We can solve this problem with the Rwanda scheme. If someone comes here illegally they won’t be able to stay and they will be sent somewhere else and that deterrent will work.”
The plans have come under intense fire from figures across public life who argue the scheme is immoral, but the PM insists that “criminal gangs are exploiting people” and must be stopped.
He said: “There’s nothing compassionate about allowing that system to continue and unless you have a deterrent like Rwanda it will continue and that’s why I’m determined to do everything I can to stop the boats.”
Mr Sunak delighted many of his MPs this week by pledging to hike defence spending to 2.5 per cent of national income by 2030.
Speaking on a visit to an Airbus facility in Stevenage, the Prime Minister said the investment in defence was “good for British prosperity” and the “right thing for British security”.
Mr Sunak reiterated his warning that the country is “at a turning point for security” as it faces an “axis of authoritarian states” that includes Russia, Iran, North Korea and China.
“We should be really proud in the UK,” the PM insisted. “We genuinely do have the best armed forces in the world.” He also argued that Russia has suffered a “strategic failure” in its war on Ukraine. The PM said that “Ukraine has recaptured half the territory that Russia originally seized”.
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Stressing the need to continue to support the regime in Kyiv, he said: “Putin’s not going to stop there if he’s successful. As I said, other bad actors around the world, other adversaries will be looking at the situation and we will want to send a strong message to them, too, that we won’t tolerate this kind of behaviour.”
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