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6 - 12 August 2022
Rishi Sunak promises to do everything possible to make the Asians proud Rupanjana Dutta Lord Dolar Popat organised a greet and meet with the Conservative leadership and Prime Ministerial candidate Rishi Sunak at his residence on Tuesday 26 July, attended by local Tory party members, councillors and close guests. The entrance to his beautiful house in Stanmore had members from Lord Popat’s family welcoming every invitee individually. His garden was buzzing with at least 100 guests, munching on Indian canapes, drinking juices, and networking, while they kept their anxious eyes fixed on the door, awaiting Rishi Sunak’s entry any moment. Mr Sunak, upon his arrival, stopped by and spoke to everyone present, obliging with a photograph and selfie or two, while exchanging pleasantries. He also posed with the Indian Journalists’ Association’s Yearbook celebrating the 75th anniversary of the organisation. The IJA hosted their celebratory dinner on Monday 25 July at The Taj in central London, which Mr Sunak was invited to attend. His last exclusive interview with the organisation was on 1 July, just before he resigned as the Chancellor. Lord Popat standing on the “lucky-charm” spiralling wooden stairs of his house, which was once visited by John Major during his election bid that he finally won, said, “While I'm wishing on that everyone here agrees Rishi is really good to work with because he gets on with people. So many people who have worked with him, admire him for the way he does his job. Therefore, I believe he will make a great leader of our party. And of course, the Prime Minister. Today has been inspiring and humbling and I'm proud to support Rishi.” Mr Sunak, in a crisp white shirt, tucked in a pair of blue jeans, stood on those stairs, and addressed the room full of audience with a broad smile, talking about Asian and immigrant values, strength in family bonds, power of education and hard work and opportunities that Britain has provided as a country to all. He said, “I've been out and about talking to members across the country. They've been telling me things and I've been hearing what's on their mind. I'm standing here, because like many of you, this country did something incredible for our families. And it welcomed them here as immigrants. My mom ran the local chemist in Southampton where I grew up, my dad was an NHS GP, and I was brought up with a certain set of values. I was brought up to believe that family is everything and family provides the bond
Rishi Sunak standing with Lord Popat at his residence, addressing the guests
that no government could hope to replicate. “I was brought up to believe in hard work. Because if you work hard, there is nothing that you can't achieve in life. I was brought up to believe in the power of education to transform people's lives, that it was worth sacrificing for, because that's how you build a better future. And I was brought up to understand the power of small business, I worked in my mom’s shop, I worked in her pharmacy, I delivered medicines to her, I worked in an Indian restaurant as a waiter. And I saw first-hand doing books or accounts or payroll, just how powerful small companies are in providing jobs and opportunity for people in their community. Now, those are my values. I know, they're all your values, too. Those are the values that we cherish that we hold dear. But they are also Conservative values. And that is why I want to be Prime Minister, because this country did something great for my family, enabled them and all of us to build a better life for our children.” Speaking about the challenges ahead as a country and how he wished to tackle them as the Prime Minister, Mr Sunak added, “I want to give everyone the same opportunities that I have had here. How do we do that? We need to do three things. We need to restore trust; we need to rebuild our economy and we need to be honest. And as your Prime Minister, I will be honest about the challenges that this country faces. You've seen that in this leadership election. So far, I have not taken the easy road, I could have said a lot of things that would have made my life easier. That's not leadership, leadership starts with honesty, the country deserves nothing less. But trust also comes from doing the things that you say, and our government must have a grip on some of the challenges that we're facing in this country and solve them. So, whether it's their NHS backlogs, whether it's illegal migration, whether it's tackling the threats we face from abroad, we've had enough talk over the last few years. Now we need a government that delivers, and I will bring that delivery to you. But then we need to get on to rebuild the economy and I don't need to tell all of you, the single biggest challenge
we face is inflation. Many of you will remember what it's like when inflation gets out of control, so we've got to correct inflation and grip it fast. And then once we've done that, of course, we're going to cut more taxes. I'm a Conservative and I want people to earn more. And I want them to keep more of what they earn; I want to support our businesses to invest and grow. I want to take advantage of some of the things that Brexit has provided to drive growth and prosperity across this country and deregulate and we're going to do all of that. But what I will not do is put at risk our children's future by borrowing billions of pounds, making the problem worse, risk pushing up everybody's mortgage rates, and putting the bill on the country's credit card and asking our children and grandchildren to pick up the tab. That is not how we were raised. That is not how you build prosperity. It's not right. It's not responsible, and it is certainly not a Conservative thing to do.” Finally, speaking about the upcoming elections (in 2024) and referring to the latest council election in Harrow, that moved Labour seats to Tory in a historical win, he concluded by saying, “The last thing we need to do is reunite this country. It's been a tough couple of years. And when we get to the next election, we must do something that has never been done before. We must win a fifth General
It was an honour to host Rishi Sunak along with many supporters from across Harrow at my house. I am a big supporter of Rishi and I’m glad to play a role in helping him gain support, especially from the Indian community. I am pleased that he has reached the final two of the leadership election and I am proud to lend my support to him to become the leader of the party and our future Prime Minister. I wish Rishi all the best over the coming weeks and hope that members will lend their support to him as well. - Lord Dolar Popat
Election victory. We'll be making political history. So, we're going to need someone who can win in London, who can win in the Northeast and who can win in Liberal leaning areas, and I am the best person to put our party in a position to win that next election. “You showed us in Harrow how it can be done. And I will work with you to make sure that we do that for the entire country. And in conclusion, let me say this, if I'm fortunate enough to get this job, I will give you everything I have got my heart and soul into delivering those Conservative values that we hold dear into action for our country. I will give everything I've got into working with you to make sure that we win our elections council by council, all the way up to the general election because I know the efforts and the sacrifices and the hard work that many of you in this room starting with Dolar (Lord Popat) did decades ago, to pave the path for me to stand here today and be on the precipice of being our first ethnic minority Prime Minister. “To repay that debt, I will do absolutely everything I can, to make all of you as proud as I possibly can as your Prime Minister.”
Neck to neck Sunak is closing in on foreign secretary Liz Truss in the race to replace Boris Johnson as the next PM. Truss has a much smaller lead than was estimated earlier. As per the recent poll conducted between July 19 and 27, Truss only has a 5point lead over Sunak. While the foreign secretary has support from 48 per cent of Conservative Party members, 43 per cent back former finance minister Sunak. This challenges the earlier survey by YouGov between July 20 and 21 which gave a 24-point lead to Truss over Sunak. The winner will be selected by voting between August 4 and September 3 from around 200,000-strong Conservative party members and will be announced on September 5. Both contenders have been busy campaigning. "It really hasn't felt to us like Liz was doing as well as the polls have been suggesting. Wherever he goes he is getting really good feedback and an awful lot of people are still making up their minds," 'The Times' newspaper quoted a Sunak campaign source as saying. "Liz's support feels very soft," the source said. However, Sunak led Truss on being 'qualified' to be Prime Minister by 10 points, 52 per cent to 42 per cent, and being authoritative, 51 per cent to 43 per cent.
Sir John Curtice, a polling expert, said it was possible that the race was closer than had been assumed. "We have to bear in mind that since Tory MPs decided that this was the contest between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, we have had one opinion poll of the people who will actually have a vote, that is Conservative members," he told 'GB News'. "That poll put Liz Truss well ahead, once you took out the one in five or so who did not express a view, she was on 62 per cent, way ahead of the 50 per cent that's required. But that poll is now nearly a fortnight old," he said. "I ask all those who have supported the Boris ballot campaign not to spoil their ballots. Please don't write Boris on the ballot etc, don't destroy the ballot or just not vote," said David CampbellBannerman, a former Tory member of the European Parliament (MEP) who was coordinating the drive with Conservative peer Lord Peter Cruddas. "We cannot allow the man who brought down Boris - Rishi Sunak - to win under any circumstances," he said.
