Less than a week after his dramatic departure, the former Chancellor’s campaign was launched in a glossy video on social media. Mr Sunak said: “I am about to become the next Conservative Party leader and your Prime Minister. Let’s restore confidence, rebuild the economy and reunite the country.”
Mr Sunak plans to present himself as the “serious candidate, for serious times” and draw on his track record to help the country through the pandemic and lockdown with a globally throbbing leave and rescue plan.
As Chancellor, he has been criticized for raising taxes to pay the costs of the pandemic from Tory MPs, but he has seemed to criticize his critics as those who “fantasize and want to live in the moment” while billing himself as the man to make difficult decisions.
Mr Sunak also spoke proudly of his mother who was a pharmacist and father who was a doctor and raised him in Southampton.