Sunak: Not fair to say Tory big beasts kept off presidential-style campaign

Rishi Sunak has denied claims that other high-profile Tory figures have been kept away from the campaign trail, insisting “they’ve all been campaigning lots”.

The Prime Minister was joined by Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron in north Devon on Tuesday, but has been accused of running a presidential-style General Election campaign with little involvement from other Cabinet ministers.

Asked about the claims, he told reporters on the visit: “I don’t think that’s quite fair.

“They’ve all been campaigning lots, right? Like David’s (Cameron) been out and about a lot campaigning in lots of places… Claire (Coutinho) was with me yesterday. Penny’s (Mordaunt) been doing the multi-party debate, right?

“So you’re seeing the full team out there doing lots of campaigning.”

He also joked that “as far as I can tell, I can’t turn on the TV screen without seeing Grant (Shapps)”.

Defence Secretary Mr Shapps has been a regular feature on the morning broadcast round, where he conceded on Monday that a Conservative victory was unlikely.

Mr Sunak continued: “We’re a big broad team.

“Everyone’s working really hard. I’m seeing lots of colleagues, we’re in touch the whole time and we’re all fighting very hard on the choice at this election.

“And we’re all four-square behind the choice, which is tax cuts with the Conservatives versus tax rises with the Labour Party.”

The Tory campaign has so far centred on the Prime Minister, despite his dismal personal ratings.

According to an Ipsos survey last week, Mr Sunak’s personal favourability score was minus 34 for Mr Sunak, with almost three in five people saying they felt unfavourable towards him.