Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, his predecessor as Prime Minister (Image: GETTY)
Rishi Sunak took a massive swipe at predecessor Liz Truss in a bullish speech in which he insisted his party could still win the next general election.
The Prime Minister pledged that his Government would "always be there" for voters at times of economic difficulty - while claiming Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer “does not have a plan”.
Mr Sunak used his speech at the Policy Exchange this morning to set his stall out in advance of the general election he is widely expected to call in the autumn.
And he took the opportunity to draw a contrast between himself and the woman he replaced after she spent just 49 days in Number 10, making her the shortest-serving British Prime Minister in history.
The former Chancellor said: "People have been struggling to make ends meet. I know that.
READ MORE: Rishi Sunak says Labour cannot be trusted to protect the nation
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Rishi Sunak was beaten by Liz Truss to the Tory leadership in 2022 (Image: GETTY)
"In the last few years we have seen rising energy bills, mortgage rates, the cost of the weekly shop.
"And I hope I have shown that through my time in office, that from furlough to support with your energy bills, the Government I lead will always be there for you."
Such an approach would only be possible "if we take the tough decisions to strengthen the country's finances and control debt”, Mr Sunak insisted.
And in a jab at the woman who beat him to the top job after the resignation of Boris Johnson in 2022, he spoke of how he had been proven right in warning Ms Truss' agenda "imperilled our financial strength".
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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer (Image: Getty)
“When I stood for the leadership of my party and my opponent's policies imperilled our financial strength, I was sooner prepared to lose than abandon what I believe so deeply is right for our country."
Turning his attention to Sir Keir, he accused the former Director of Public Prosecutions of having "no principles", saying he had "gone from embracing Jeremy Corbyn to Natalie Elphicke, all in the cynical pursuit of power at any price".
He warned: "Labour have no ideas. What they did have they've U-turned on.
“They have just one thing: a calculation that they can make you feel so bad about your country, that you won't have the energy to ask what they might do with the incredible power that they seek to yield."
As Business Secretary, Ms Truss spearheaded Britain’s bid to forge new trade agreements in the aftermath of Brexit, striking deals with major economies including Japan.
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Liz Truss published her new book, Ten Years to Save the West, earlier this year (Image: Getty)
Speaking in February, the MP for South West Norfolk blamed what she called the “deep state” for derailing her premiership.
Addressing conservatives at a conference in the United States, she said: “I ran for office in 2022 because Britain wasn’t growing, the state wasn’t delivering, [and] we needed to do more.
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“I wanted to cut taxes, reduce the administrative state, take back control as people talked about in the Brexit referendum. What I did face was a huge establishment backlash and a lot of it actually came from the state itself.”
“What has happened in Britain over the past 30 years is power that used to be in the hands of politicians has been moved to quangos and bureaucrats and lawyers so what you find is a democratically elected government actually unable to enact policies.
“A quango is a quasi non-governmental organisation. In America you call it the administrative state or the deep state. But we have more than 500 of these quangos in Britain and they run everything.”
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