Delivering on Sunak’s five pledges may be difficult, says Grant Shapps
Ministers may find it difficult to deliver on Rishi Sunak’s five “detailed pledges”, a cabinet member has indicated, after senior Conservatives publicly criticised the prime minister’s ability to lead.
The energy secretary, Grant Shapps, said the Conservative government was “still absolutely committed” to delivering all five of Sunak’s promises within this parliament, but people must “wait until the end of that trajectory” to judge the prime minister’s progress.
In January, Sunak pleaded with the public to judge him on delivering his pledges, none of which have a timescale apart from halving inflation by the end of 2023. His pledges also include growing the economy, reducing debt, cutting NHS waiting lists and stopping small-boat crossings to the UK.
NHS waiting lists remain at a record high, 564 asylum seekers crossed the Channel this week alone and economic growth remains slow.
Shapps told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I thought it was always going to be difficult, and we still are committed absolutely to those five pledges.”
He added: “In fact the economy is growing, albeit slowly, so there is some movement there. We want to make sure we do get the NHS waiting list down and we’ve seen an end to 18-month waits for example, and when it comes to stopping the boats, we’re passing the laws to do it.”
Sunak failed to impress in his first electoral test, as he oversaw devastating losses at the local elections, with the Tories losing more than 1,000 councillors. Some traditional Conservative votes have since admitted they wanted to make the Tories wake up, “stop being wishy-washy” and earn their votes back.
The former home secretary Priti Patel accused Sunak of overseeing a “managed decline” of the Conservative
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