What Sunak told Conservative MPs when he met them privately

Rishi Sunak, UK’s new Prime Minister to be has told Conservative Members of Parliament that the party faced an existential threat.

The Guardian quoted Simon Hoare, a friend of Sunak as saying that he could not pretend that the last few weeks and months had been easy or edifying or helpful.

The incoming PM said the party was going back to serious, pragmatic traditions of Conservative government.

“The message we heard was about going forward – as a party and a government this about the future and shaping the future. We cannot rewrite history. We will play the hand we have got, but it is not an inevitable threat we face,” he was quoted as saying.

He added that his ambition was to have a “highly productive UK economy.”

Sunak pledged a commitment to levelling up and the pledges of the 2019 manifesto. He said the party backed “low taxation” but said it had to be affordable and deliverable.

According to him, a stable and productive economy would be the engine that drove a well-funded health and education service, as well as delivering on net zero and said it would be an “environmentally focussed government.”

The incoming PM also ruled out early election even though the opposition parties would inevitably clamour for one.

He added that he would ask the British people for space and time to resolve the problems the country is facing.

Sunak said he had no commitment to spending cuts, saying that it would be a “tough period” for the government.