Tories have made Britain a better place to live than in 2010, says Sunak

Britain has become a better place to live under a Conservative government, Rishi Sunak has said.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the Prime Minister said he “wholeheartedly rejected” the “declinist narrative” of many commentators, and insisted he expected to still be in Number 10 on Friday.

He said the UK was “a better place to live than it was in 2010” and that although the last few years had been difficult because of Covid and Ukraine, the country was now on the right track.

“Of course I understand that the last few years have been difficult for everyone,” he said, but added: “Inflation is back to normal, the economy is growing again, wages rising, energy bills are set to fall again next week, and now we’re able to start cutting people’s taxes.”

When it was put to him that the county has become poorer by many measures since 2010 and public services are worse, Mr Sunak said: “I just don’t accept that.

“Thanks to the reforms of the Conservative government, our schoolchildren are now the best readers in the Western world. Nine out of 10 schools are good or outstanding – a huge improvement compared to what we inherited.”

Asked whether Britain had lost its standing in the world because of Brexit, the Prime Minister said: “That is completely and utterly wrong.”

He said Britain had signed the Hiroshima Accord with Japan last year, “unequivocally stating that we are their closest ally in Europe”.

Mr Sunak added: “We’re building a new generation of nuclear submarines with Australia and America. It has never happened before that we have shared technology on that scale.

“People are queueing up to work with us because they respect what we do. So I just completely reject that. It’s entirely wrong. This sort of declinist narrative that people have of the UK I wholeheartedly reject.”

Mr Sunak said a vote for the Tories was a vote for lower taxes, adding: “We will continue to cut taxes for people at every stage of their lives, giving them the financial security that they rightly want and deserve after what has been a difficult few years.

“None of those things are going to be made any easier by a Labour government that would whack up everyone’s taxes by thousands of pounds.”

Mr Sunak said the use of the “P-word” by a Reform UK canvasser in Clacton was “deeply inappropriate and racist”.

He said any politician expected a degree of criticism because it “comes with the territory”. He added that he hated having to repeat the phrase that was used about him, but it was important to call it out.

The Prime Minister said that Britain was “the most successful multi-faith, multi-ethnic democracy anywhere in the world”, adding: “That’s why views like this are so damaging and so wrong. They belong to a minority of people and they deserve to be called out for what they are, and that’s what I did.”

Mr Sunak claimed he was “proud” of the Tory campaign despite mistakes such as leaving a D-Day commemoration early and having senior party figures questioned over insider betting.

And asked whether he thought he would still be Prime Minister on Friday, he said: “Yes, I’m fighting very hard, and I think people are waking up to the real danger of what a Labour government means. I don’t want people to surrender their pension, their finances, our borders, their security to a Labour government.”