The PM is drawing up a wave of eye-catching announcements aimed at boosting his party’s popularity – and exploiting Sir Keir Starmer’s weaknesses. He will throw caution to the wind by entering policy areas where he believes his opponent will fear to tread.
Buoyed by the public approval of his green climbdown, he aims to confront a range of other controversial issues head-on.
Downing Street said he won’t flinch from tackling difficult areas of public concern, regardless of the reaction from “commentator types on social media”.
Mr Sunak fired the starting gun on the general election campaign when he tore up the net zero timetable last week.
The move outraged Left-wingers, TV pundits and establishment figures, with many claiming it would cost him votes when Britain goes to the polls next year.
But an exclusive Sunday Express poll found seven in ten people would not be willing to accept lower living standards in order to meet climate change targers.
Tory MPs believe an election victory is still within his grasp because not only are the middle classes indifferent towards Sir Keir, but “working class voters are actively hostile to him”.
Mr Sunak will deliver one of the most important speeches of his life next week when he takes the party conference stage in Manchester for the first time as Prime Minister.
READ MORE: Sunak and Starmer see popularity slump after net zero and Brexit row-backs
MPs want policies they know Labour would never offer. These include:
– Scrapping the BBC licence fee;
– Pulling out of the European Convention on Human Rights if the Supreme Court fails to give the green light to sending asylum seekers to Rwanda;
– Opening more grammar schools;
– A “radical review” of inheritance tax.
Mr Sunak has already said he is looking at an overhaul of A-levels and a shake up of tax-free saving schemes.
A Downing Street source said he would not shy away from controversy.
They said: “The PM knows the public want us to take the tough decisions in the long-term interests of our country rather than focus on the short-term political needs of the moment.
“He doesn’t mind if his decisions are controversial if they are the right thing to do. He cares about what’s best for working people across the country, not what the elite metropolitan ideology happens to be at the time.”
Stressing that the Prime Minister is ready for a battle, they said: “The PM is going to continue to show the British people he’s on their side with a series of long-term decisions to deliver that change.
“He won’t take the easy way out. He knows this is the greatest country on earth and he’s determined to make the changes necessary to build a better future for our children.”
Exclusive polling by WeThink for the Sunday Express shows a majority of voters share his conviction that people should not be impoverished in the push to achieve net zero carbon emissions.
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More than two thirds (67 per cent) of Britons said they would not accept a lower standard of living if it means carbon targets are met. This was true for 71 per cent of likely Conservative voters, 64 per cent of those planning to vote Labour and half of Green supporters.
His move to delay the ban on petrol and diesel vehicles has delighted many MPs.
A former Boris Johnson loyalist said: “Rishi is the most courageous Prime Minister in many decades in the sense that he’s had the courage to take on the omnipotent Green lobby.”
Sir John Hayes, chairman of the influential “common sense” group of socially conservative MPs, said: “The Prime Minister needs to be congratulated… People’s wellbeing has to drive all the Government does.
“To sacrifice the wellbeing of people now for some questionable perception of a possible future is not how you restore people’s faith in democratic government. This will restore people’s belief that this Government and this Prime Minister understand the pressures they are facing with the cost of living.”
Mr Sunak believes voters’ are “sick” of seeing Labour shift position on major policies.
The Downing Street source said: “He knows people are sick of the kind of short term decisions making and political game-playing demonstrated every week by Labour. One week they back Brexit, the next they say they want to take us back into the EU’s orbit.”
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A Tory MP who turned an iconic Labour seat from red to blue in 2019 said: “Middle class voters are agnostic about Starmer. Working class voters are actively hostile to him.”
Labour routinely enjoys a poll lead over the Conservatives of around 20 points, but the first-term MP insisted all is not lost for the Tories.
“If the election was tomorrow we’d lose badly,” they said. “But it’s not.
“There is still time to turn it around. It’s not game over.”
Tory MPs are desperate for policies they can sell on the doorstep and are hoping for a string of exciting announcements at next week’s conference.
A leading member of the centrist “one nation” group of Tory MPs said: “This conference will be crucial. Usually conferences don’t make a difference but this one will.
“Rishi needs to show he has a vision for what the next five years of a Rishi government will look like.”
A “red wall” MP who represents a former Labour stronghold said: “I think we’re like the rest of the country. We’re hoping the Government is going to bring forward something stupendous.”
Mr Sunak’s decisions on net zero have even won praise from MPs on the green wing of the party.
A senior Tory applauded him for “ditching the gesture politics”, saying: “I am a Conservative Environment Network, pro-net zero MP, but I thought Rishi was brilliant. Principled and pragmatic.”
Veteran Conservative MP Sir Michael Fabricant said it was “wise” to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars at the same time as France and Germany, adding: “There is little point in damaging the livelihoods of the British simply to be the first when there isn’t the infrastructure and we only generate one per cent of global emissions anyway.”
A taskforce launched to accelerate home insulation and boiler upgrades has been disbanded following Mr Sunak’s decision to axe energy efficiency regulations for landlords.
A Conservative insider stressed the importance of having policies that will strike a chord with northern voters.
“If we lose the North we lose the election,” they said. “It’s as simple as that.”
The insider claimed said that Sir Keir’s recent performance on issues such as immigration and Brexit had strengthened hopes the Tories can hold onto power.
“We actually can win this election because we’re up against somebody who’s bad,” they said.
Conservatives are also increasingly aware of the consequences of a Labour win for the party and the country.
Sir John Hayes is appalled by Labour’s pledge to give the Office for Budget Responsibility the power to publish its own assessments of major changes to tax and spending.
“It’s ludicrous that an unelected, unaccountable Government body should have the whip hand on tax and spending,” he said.
Tories are also concerned that if Labour won a large majority their own party would descend into internal conflict.
An insider predicted “carnage” would result.
And an MP warned it would be “five years of Tories kicking the **** out of each other”.
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