Rishi Sunak gives biggest hint yet Tories still holding out for Nigel Farage to join

On Farage's future with the Tory party, Sunak refused to rule out the prospect and repeated comments that he first made to GB News in October's party conference, saying: "Our party has always been a broad church."

He added: "My focus is consistently on delivering on the things that matter to people", and highlighted his achievements this year in halving inflation, reducing debt and cutting small boats crossing by a third.

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Sunak said: "My view is to keep doing the things that matter to people, keep showing we make a difference to their lives. I am focused on that, day in, day out. That's what I can do. The things that I can control.

"The things that I do that will make a difference, make people's lives better and make them confident that their kids and their grandkids are going to have a better future.

"I know that we are making progress on these things, and will continue to do that week in, week out."

Sunak continued: "We are now in a position where we can cut taxes... We are now delivering the biggest set of tax cuts since the 1980s for businesses and for 30 million people in work. That is kicking in at the beginning of January."

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Asked if inheritance tax or stamp duty were next for the chop to win back more Tories from the Right, Sunak said: "I would never comment on specific taxes. I will just say we have turned a corner.

"We have got inflation down, as I said we would, we have grown the economy and we are now focused on controlling spending and controlling welfare so we can cut taxes. So when we can do more, we will.

"We want to grow the economy, we want to reward people’s hard work and aspirations and cut their taxes responsibly. That is the direction of travel from this Government."

Sunak was also challenged about whether he was going to call a general election next Spring, rather than wait until the summer and the autumn when polls might look more healthy.

He replied that he was "not going to get into election timing now alongside the manifesto or the next Budget".

Asked if he will commit to keeping the pensions triple lock at his next general election manifesto, he said he was "definitely not going to start writing the manifesto on the plane, as fun as that would be".

He said Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's commitment to honour the pensions ‘triple lock’ in the Autumn statement "is just a signal of our commitment to look after our pensioners who have put a lot into our country".

Sunak added: "We owe them a lot and under this Government, we have consistently shown we will support them and back them.”