James Heale James Heale

Five things we learnt from Rishi versus Piers

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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.

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