Rishi Sunak makes plea for party unity in final address as Tory leader

LONDON: Britain's interim Leader of the Opposition Rishi Sunak has used his final address as Conservative Party chief to call on his colleagues to stop squabbling and unite behind his successor.

The 44-year-old British-Indian politician, who resigned as Tory leader following the party's bruising defeat in the July general election, used his address to the annual Conservative Party conference in Birmingham on Sunday evening to express optimism for its future.

He and his wife, Akshata Murty, were given a warm welcome by the Tory membership gathered for his speech, which reflected a modified agenda as Sunak made way for the four leadership contenders to take centre stage to make their pitches to be elected his successor.

"I'm optimistic about our country's long-term future, I'm optimistic about our party's future too," said Sunak, amid loud cheers.

"Whoever wins this contest, give them your backing. We must end the division, the backbiting, the squabbling. We mustn't nurse old grudges but build new friendships. We must always remember what unites us, rather than obsessing about where we might differ, because when we turn in on ourselves, we lose and the country ends up with a Labour government,” he said.

Former ministers James Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat are going head-to-head at this week’s party conference to convince fellow Tory members of Parliament and the wider party membership that they are best placed to take Sunak’s place following the worst Tory general election defeat in decades.

"In James, Kemi, Robert and Tom, we have a slate of strong leadership candidates. Now, I sat around the Cabinet tables with all of them, and I can tell you, they are all good Conservatives who would lead this country well and be better Prime Ministers than Keir Starmer,” said Sunak, refraining from endorsing any one of the four contenders.

"If we Conservatives are going to get back into office so that we can once more deliver for the British people, then our new leader is going to need your support. So, let's use this conference to look to the future and ensure that one of our four candidates is not just the next leader of our party, but our next prime minister too,” he said.

Sunak used the ongoing media uproar around Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Labour Party colleagues accepting expensive gifts from donors to take digs at the government.

"Now you don't need somebody else to buy you a pair of designer glasses to see that the shine is coming off Keir Starmer already; people can see that Labour weren't frank with them at the election… that Labour are making the wrong choices for our country,” he said, amid laughter.

Highlighting some of his achievements as Britain's first Indian-origin chancellor and then prime minister, Sunak claimed to have successfully steered the UK through some of the biggest challenges in history.

"When COVID hit, we could support people and businesses with furlough, provide record funding to the NHS and deliver the fastest vaccine rollout in the world anywhere,” said Sunak, who was re-elected MP for Richmond and Northallerton in Yorkshire in July.

“We have given a whole generation opportunities that they would not have otherwise had, and our country will reap the benefit of those reforms for generations to come, and that is a legacy we Conservatives should be proud of,” he added.

At the end of the Tory conference on Wednesday, the Tory leadership contest field will be whittled down to the final two candidates who will then fight it for the online ballot of the wider Conservative Party membership.

The new Conservative Party leader is scheduled to be declared on November 2 and go on to take their place in the House of Commons as the Leader of the Opposition.