Rishi Sunak has brushed off questions about his predecessor Liz Truss stealing the limelight at the Conservative party conference.
The short-lived prime minister, whose fall from office paved the way for Mr Sunak to enter Number 10, was greeted by lengthy queues when she appeared in Manchester on Monday to call for tax cuts to “make Britain grow again”.
The Truss-aligned Conservative Growth Group is said to have the support of 60 MPs, a sizeable chunk of the parliamentary party and enough to threaten Mr Sunak’s majority in the Commons.
Ms Truss has not been shy about calling for the Government to change course in a bid to boost growth, urging Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to cut corporation tax to at least 19% and to slash Government spending.
But Mr Sunak appeared unconcerned on Tuesday about the apparent popularity of his former leadership rival.
Asked on Times Radio if it worried him, he said: “No, not at all.
“Lots of Conservatives here. I think the mood is great.
“People are excited about the things we’re doing.”
Rishi Sunak has said that voters do not care about how much money is in his bank account amid questions over whether his wealth makes him out of touch.
The Prime Minister, who with his wife Akshata Murty has an estimated net worth of £529 million, faced questions during a set of broadcast interviews about whether his wealth made it difficult for voters to connect with him.
Mr Sunak told Times Radio that the public did not care about his wealth but wanted leaders who instead make a “difference” amid cost-of-living pressures.
“I think what people want from their prime ministers and their leaders is to do things that are going to make a difference to their lives,” he said.
“I don’t think people are as interested in how much money is in my bank account. They’re interested in what I’m doing for them.”
He said that the recent decision to ease the shift away from gas boilers and petrol and diesel cars was a “great example of that”.
A word cloud on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg recently suggested that the main thing the public thought about him was he was “rich”.
Mr Sunak’s wealth makes him one of the richest men ever to become prime minister but it has seen critics and opponents argue that he has little understanding of the pressures on ordinary voters battling inflation.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “The thing that people want from me is to make a difference to their lives and when I first got this job I set out five priorities that I was going to focus on for the country – the first of those was to halve inflation.”
He added: “That was the first and most important priority I set out because I know things are difficult and the biggest impact I’ve had on people’s lives is to bring the rate of inflation down and the good news is we’re making progress.
“Of course I know things are tough for people right now, but I’m going to make sure we stick to the plan, the plan is working.”
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