The morning after the first one-on-one Tory leadership debate, Rishi Sunak came to 22 Old Queen Street to speak to Charles Moore for SpectatorTV. This is an edited transcript of their conversation.
CHARLES MOORE: Rishi Sunak, welcome to the offices of The Spectator. Just a preliminary – because you mentioned it first in the debate last night [Monday] – David Trimble died and you paid tribute to him. Almost the last thing he intervened on in public life was on the Northern Ireland Protocol. He was worried because he said it threatened the Belfast Agreement. Do you agree?
RISHI SUNAK: David Trimble was someone who did an enormous amount to support the Union and bring peace to Northern Ireland, and we’ll miss him dearly for that. What I’ve seen in the job that I’ve had is economically that the patterns of trade have certainly changed in a way that moves Northern Ireland further away from the orbit of the rest of the United Kingdom. And there are some very real challenges with the arrangements that are in place currently. I’d like to see those fixed and the Protocol bill gives us an opportunity to do that. But the door should always be there for a negotiated settlement with Europe, not least because it is a lot faster.
CM: Let’s go to the debate more widely. Why is there no more Mr Nice Guy?
RS: Well because half the time people are saying to me: ‘We’re not sure if you’re tough enough to be prime minister.’ And then when you are tough it’s: ‘Oh gosh, you’re too tough.’ I think these ideas really matter to me. I’ve deliberately chosen to say some things that probably aren’t that easy. But I firmly believe they’re the right things for our country and that’s why I’m going to keep talking about them passionately.
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