Tonight marks 100 days since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister – so what better way to celebrate than an interview with Piers Morgan? The charge from some of Sunak’s critics like Nadine Dorries is that he’s an ‘invisible’ ‘submarine Prime Minister’ who isn’t ‘out at the front, making the case’ for his party. This evening’s encounter on TalkTV gave him the chance to do just that. Morgan mixed policy with the personal, in the style he’s used previously to good effect in interviews with the likes of Gordon Brown and Keir Starmer. Much of it focused on Sunak’s ‘five pledges’ – reducing debt, halving inflation, boosting growth, stopping the boats, cutting NHS waiting times – though there were questions too about his earnings, recreations and marital life too. Below are five things we learned from tonight’s interview.
The looming battle on small boats
Morgan asked Sunak about his pledge to stop migrant crossings in the Channel and the action he has taken in his first 100 days as PM. The latter responded by pointing to new deals with France and Albania, which will respectively increase patrol numbers and return migrants home faster. But the PM was keen to stress the importance of changing the existing legislative framework and emphasise how it will only be through new laws in the coming weeks and months that will really offer the solution to these problems. Sunak said he is keen to expedite the process whereby ‘the vast majority of cases’ are detained and removed from Britain to either a safe country for processing or their home country where appropriate. His language about how ‘we are not a soft touch’ nation is a taster of what is likely to come in the Commons during the upcoming parliamentary session.
Nurses stand the best chance of improved conditions
When asked about the ongoing strikes, Sunak was keen to talk up nurses as an exception from other public sector workers. He stressed both his own family’s employment within the health service and that when Chancellor, he exempted those within the NHS from a general pay freeze during Covid. Such praise though did make it difficult for Sunak when Morgan asked him why nurses aren’t being granted an above inflation pay rise or exempted from NHS car parking charges. During a prolonged back and forth, Morgan raised the case of nurses spending up to £1,000 of their earnings on such schemes, with Sunak eventually agreeing to ‘at least look at the issue’ of whether free parking ought to be introduced in England, as it is in Scotland and Wales.
Britain’s goal in Ukraine remains unchanged – but the strategy has shifted
One of Sunak’s firmer answers was when he told Morgan what Britain’s goals are with regards to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: ‘Our desire and goal is for Ukraine to win this conflict.’ Coming ahead of the first anniversary of the conflict, it’s a timely rejoinder to a minority of voices who question the UK’s ongoing role there. While Sunak was keen to make clear that Britain’s aim remains unchanged, he wanted to emphasise that, as Prime Minister, he has shifted ‘our strategy on Ukraine to a more proactive strategy.’
Morgan tried to bait Sunak by asking him what he felt about Boris Johnson’s calls for more tanks and jets to be delivered to Ukraine; the PM preferred to talk about capabilities and the importance of training. ‘The thing to bear in mind with jets, these are incredibly sophisticated pieces of equipment that require months, if not years, for people to be trained on’ he said, adding ‘It’s not about just giving them what they need, we need to make sure that they can use what they are giving.’
He will ‘shortly’ publish his tax returns
Morgan pressed Sunak on his commitment to publish his tax returns; he first made the promise during his first bid to be Tory leader last summer. Unlike in America, there is not a long tradition of Prime Ministers making these documents public, though Theresa May published four years of returns when standing for leader back in 2016. Sunak referred to ‘precedent’ when asked as to how far back his returns would go and told Morgan: ‘They will be published shortly. As you know the tax filing deadline was just a few days ago. So that’s why. So we do the tax-filing deadlines just passed, so they’re just being prepared and they will be released shortly.’
His proposal to his wife
Sunak has shown an unwillingness to discuss personal matters before, complaining about the ‘upsetting’ criticism of his wife Akshata Murthy over her family company’s failure to end ties with Russia. So in one of the lighter segments of the interview, it was to Morgan’s credit that he got Sunak to shed some light on the relationship between the pair. He agreed that he was ‘batting above average’ with her and said that he proposed to her in Half Moon Bay in California, where they met while studying. Sunak said that his wife gives him the ‘extra support to keep going when things are tough’ and that both of them ‘do love Bob Marley.’
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