Rishi Sunak pledges UK return to Thatcherite economic policies in Tory leadership bid

In his first campaign interview, PM candidate promises economic return to 'common sense Thatcherism'

Former chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak is a candidate to replace Boris Johnson as British prime minister. PA

Rishi Sunak arrives at an event in London to launch his campaign to be the next Conservative leader and prime minister. Reuters

Mr Sunak arrives with his green budget box to deliver a keynote speech at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2021. Getty Images

Mr Sunak works on his budget speech with staff in the offices at 11 Downing Street, October 2021. Photo: HM Treasury

At the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester in October 2021. Getty Images

Mr Sunak with the budget box at 11 Downing Street in March 2021. Getty Images

Mr Sunak on a visit to the Imperial Clinic Research Facility at Hammersmith Hospital, London, in November 2020. Getty Images

Rishi Sunak places a 'Eat Out To Help Out' sticker in the window of a restaurant during a visit to the Isle of Bute, Scotland, in August 2020. Getty Images

Meeting shoppers on the High Street in Northallerton in Yorkshire in June 2020. Photo: HM Treasury

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak use hand sanitiser during a visit to Pizza Pilgrims in West India Quay, London Docklands, as lockdown rules eased in June 2020. Getty Images

Rishi Sunak has said that he would run the economy like Margaret Thatcher if he was elected as the next prime minister of the country.

The former chancellor told The Telegraph newspaper of his economic vision as he clashed with other contenders for refusing to promise immediate tax cuts.

It was announced on Tuesday evening that Mr Sunak will join seven other contenders on the ballot paper as Tory MPs begin voting on Wednesday to elect a successor to Boris Johnson.

“You have to earn what you spend,” he said in his first campaign interview.

Mr Sunak insisted that he would take a more responsible approach to tax cuts.

“We will cut taxes and we will do it responsibly," he said. "That’s my economic approach. I would describe it as common-sense Thatcherism. I believe that’s what she would have done.”

Mr Sunak also links Mrs Thatcher’s economic thinking with his own upbringing.

“If you read her speeches – and I’ve quoted her and [former Tory chancellor] Nigel Lawson in other lectures I’ve given – her approach to these things was to make sure that as a nation you have to earn what you spend.

“She talked about the person at home with their family budget. She talked about that really powerfully. That resonated with me, because that’s how I was brought up.

“My mum was a small businesswoman, she was a chemist. I worked in my mum’s small chemist in Southampton.

"I did my mum’s books, that was part of my job. I also did payroll and accounts every week and every month.”

Mr Sunak also indicated that he would not lift the ban on new grammar schools or the hunting ban, and declined to back an increase in defence spending.

Earlier, Mr Sunak said he was not prepared to “demonise” Boris Johnson and insisted the prime minister’s controversial former aide Dominic Cummings has “absolutely nothing” to do with his leadership campaign.

He began his launch event in London by defending his former boss, saying that while Mr Johnson was “flawed” and that he had often disagreed with him, he had a “good heart”.

“I will have no part in a rewriting of history that seeks to demonise Boris, exaggerate his faults or deny his efforts,” he told an animated crowd of supporters.

Mr Sunak said he would run a “positive campaign” and refuse to “engage in the negativity you have seen and read in the media”.

The former chancellor has come under fire from allies of Mr Johnson, who believe his resignation last week helped to spark the mass departure of ministers that forced Mr Johnson to admit his time is up.

Mr Sunak said his decision to quit was “incredibly difficult and sad”, but “there were just some things that were becoming too difficult for me to keep working with him on”.

He also denied rumours Mr Cummings is secretly advising him and insisted they have not spoken since the former aide left Downing Street.

“Dominic Cummings has had absolutely nothing to do with this campaign and will have absolutely nothing to do with any government that I’m privileged to lead."

Mr Sunak, who has the most public declarations of support from Tory MPs of any candidate so far, said he was encouraged by the “breadth of support” from all wings of the Tory party.

He said it would enable him to bring the party back together and “reunite the country”.

Apart from supporters holding blue placards emblazoned with his campaign slogan “Ready for Rishi” and “reunite the country”, the audience also featured Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who had just ended his own leadership campaign to back Mr Sunak.

Oliver Dowden, who stepped down as party chairman after the Tories’ recent double by-election defeat, and former chief whip Mark Harper were also there.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab introduced the leadership hopeful at the event by taking a swipe at his rivals.

“While others talk the talk, Rishi this month delivered the biggest tax cut for working people in a decade,” Mr Raab said.

“There is no time to learn on the job."

Mr Sunak also took aim at his rivals whose tax plans, he suggested, were “not credible”, and who wanted to reverse government decisions they previously supported.

He spoke of his “traditional Conservative values” of “hard work, patriotism, fairness, a love of family, pragmatism, but also an unshakable belief that we can build a better future”.

On defence spending, he would not commit to the “arbitrary target” of spending 2.5 per cent of national income on the budget as he said his approach would be “threat-based”.

Mr Sunak took questions from only one Tory councillor and four journalists, trying to end the session after being quizzed over the recent controversy about his wife’s non-domiciled status for tax purposes and the US green card he held while serving in government.

Asked whether he would be dogged by these problems as prime minister, he said: “They’re all out there and we’ve discussed them and we addressed them."

The question was met with loud jeers and laughter from supporters.