Deputy PM says Victoria Atkins is ‘star’ and is one of only people he could see leading Tory party
Asked about the best moments in the job,Sunaksays it has been meeting people who have come through some tragedy but than campaigned for change.
Asked about the worst moments, he says it is a difficult job, and sometimes you do not achieve what you want. He says he would like to make more progress on waiting lists.
Ben Thomsponsays Sunak laid out five priorities, but has only met one of them.
Sunaksays he is glad Thompson made that point. He claimsKeir Starmerhas not got give priorities.
On inflation, he says he has met that. It is more than halved.
On economic growth, he says in the first quarter of this year “our economy grew faster than every other major economy including France, Germany, Italy and America”.
Thomsponsays, if you take other timeframes, the record is less impressive.
Sunaksays the government is complying with debt rules.
Sunak says he has not made as much progress as he wants on waiting lists.
And, on small boats, he says Starmer would abandon the Rwanda plan.
(In fact, Starmer has set out his priorities. He has said he will be guided byfive missions,and he has set outsix first steps for government.)
Sally Nugentsays the BBC askedProf Sir John Curtice,the polling expert, about the chances of the Tories winning. He said there was “more chance of lightning striking twice, in the same place, and a bit more” than ofRishi Sunakremaining PM. Do you agree?
Sunaksays that is Curtice’s view. He says he is working as hard as he can to win people over.
Ben Thompson and Sally Nugent are presenting on BBC Breakfast. They are interviewingRishi Sunaknow.
Q: Why have you stopped talking about what a Tory government would do, and started talking about the dangers ofLabour?
Sunakclaims he is still talking about what he would do. But with a big majority Labour would be “unchecked and unaccountable”.
Q: When Margaret Thatcher and Boris Johnson won big majorities, was that dangerous for the country?
Sunakignores the question, and says Labour would put up taxes, and make the UK the “soft touch of Europe” for migration.
Rishi Sunak is about to do a phone-in on BBC Breakfast.
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Helen Sullivan.
As reported earlier, while theConservativesare trying to depress the Labour vote by warning about the dangers of a Labour “supermajority”,Keir Starmerhas said a big Labour majority would be good for Britain.
Here is the full extract fromthe Times interviewwhere he made that point.Steven Swinfordreports:
For all his instinctive caution,Starmermakes a virtue of the Tory attack by appealing to voters to hand the party a “strong mandate”.
“The most important thing is growing the economy and wealth creation,” he says. “I do think that’s been the Achilles’ heel for 13 years now.
“You can talk about public services but if you haven’t got your economy working then you can’t do that. If you haven’t settled the planning, the infrastructure challenges, then you can’t get your economy going.
“It’s the mindset change we’ve talked about. Do we need a strong mandate for that? Yes, we do. Because these changes are difficult and the sense of the whole country wanting those changes is important in terms of the platform on which we stand to take the country forward.”
The bigger the majority, the better? “Better for the country. Because it means we can roll up our sleeves and get on with the change we need.”
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Energy SecretaryClaire Coutinhohas echoed Rishi Sunak’s claim that just 130,000 voters could prevent a Labour landslide.
She told LBC Radio:
It’s never over ‘till it’s over. What I would say is that lots of people, if they look at the press, they might think the election is a foregone conclusion.
Actually, it’s a relatively small amount of voters across the country - about 130,000 people have been estimated - who can make the difference in this election.
Asked by presenter Nick Ferrari whether those voters could bring about a Tory victory, she said: “There’s quite a lot of seats that are very, very marginal, Nick. So, actually, just a handful of voters in those seats can change the outcome in those seats.”
With that, and withLenny Kravitz now in my head,this isHelen Sullivanleaving you in the capable hands ofAndrew Sparrow.
Stephen Flynnalso said voters in Scotland will need to choose whether they want members of parliament who will “go and sit quietly behindKeir Starmerand nod along”, or those who will stand up to him.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, SNP’s Westminster leader said:
Do they want members of parliament who will sit opposite Keir Starmer, will stand up to him on the biggest issues, who will argue against austerity, argue for better relations with the European Union, argue for investment in our NHS, action on the cost-of-living crisis, for Scotland’s right to choose and recognition of the state of Palestine?
If they believe in that, then vote for the SNP, and that over the course of the next 48 hours I believe will come through to the general public and ensure that right across Scotland we can win the seats where it’s a very close battle between ourselves and the Labour Party.”
Meanwhile the SNP’s Westminster leaderStephen Flynnhas just been on BBC Breakfast, where he said he was “massively concerned” voters acrossScotlandreporting they have not received their postal votes.
He told BBC Breakfast:
I’m massively concerned about that, like almost every candidate across Scotland that I believe to be the case. I’ve had numerous emails from people who have not received their postal ballot, that’s simply not good enough.
You know, we warned the Prime Minister of this when it became apparent that he was going to choose the election date because, of course, for a huge majority of the people of Scotland, it’s now the school holidays, people are away on holiday.
If their postal vote didn’t land in time, then they’re now disenfranchised from this election, they’re not able to vote for who they want to represent them at Westminster, whether that’s the SNP, or otherwise, that’s simply not good enough.
I see some individuals are blaming the Royal Mail but the reality is the system is not fit for purpose, and we need to see huge reform. We also need to see a big reflection on how we’ve managed to get into a situation where a prime minister can at his own whim declare an election, the Tories decided this was the way that they want the elections to operate in the UK.”
The postal affairs minister is “urgently” investigating delays to postal ballots being delivered, Health MinisterMaria Caulfieldhas said.
Postal affairs ministerKevin Hollinrakehas criticisedRoyal Mailfor failing to deliver votes in time for the General Election.
Caulfield told Sky News:
Kevin is taking this very seriously. He’s in direct contact with the Royal Mail.
It doesn’t seem to be an issue in my constituency, but I know a number of colleagues where people haven’t received their postal votes and are worried about that.
Kevin is investigating this urgently. I know there’s extra resources going into this to try and do a sweep of all the sorting offices and make sure they’re out there.
If people have only just received their postal vote, they can take it to their polling station on election day and it will still be counted.”