Rishi Sunak pledges to put UK on 'crisis footing' if elected PM

Rishi Sunak has unleashed an intense campaign spree this weekend in his mission to win Conservative Party votes to be elected their leader and on Saturday pledged to put the UK on a crisis footing if elected Prime MinisterThe 42yearold former Chancellor told The Times in an interview that a businessasusual approach would not work in the face of the serious economic challenges facing the countryHaving been inside government I think the system just isnt working as well as it should And the challenges that Im talking about theyre not abstract theyre not things that are coming long down the track he told the newspaperTheyre challenges that are staring us in the face and a businessasusual mentality isnt going to cut it in dealing with them So from day one of being in office Im going to put us on a crisis footing he saidAhead of a speech in Grantham the eastern England hometown of 1980s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher the former Tory leader both Sunak and opponent Liz Truss are pitching as their role model to woo traditional voters the Southamptonborn Indianorigin former bankerturnedpolitician highlighted how his deeply Conservative values shaped by his familys pharmacy businessI was brought up in a home with kitchentable conservative values my mum ran a small business Margaret Thatcher talked about family budget All of us care about what we leave our children and our grandchildren Sound money is the most conservative of conservative values If we dont stand for that I dont know what the point of the Conservative Party is he saidBesides tackling inflation as a national emergency Sunak said his focus will also be on delivering better value for money value for money for the taxpayerfunded National Health Service NHS an issue that is personal to him with a grandparent just out of an NHS hospitalThis is personal for all of us the backlog issue He literally has just come out and hes very sick shared SunakWeve been extremely worried as a family about everything over the last few weeks hes my last remaining grandparent It will be unacceptable if millions and millions of people are waiting too long for the treatments they deserve he saidThe MP for Richmond in Yorkshire admitted missing his family while on the campaign trail and using video calls to stay in touchFamily is core to who I am I miss them a lot right they are in Yorkshire and I am here Were on video every day But its not the same but theyre used to that said Sunak who is married to Akshata Murty the daughter of Infosys cofounder Narayana MurthyAs prime minister you can expect that I will be someone who is incredibly supportive of families Families are amazing families do something that no government can ever hope to replicate I wouldnt be here without the love and support the sacrifice kindness of my family in all its different ways Thats why I think families are really special As prime minister I would absolutely champion families he saidAs someone who swore his oath of allegiance on being elected as a member of Parliament in the House of Commons on the Bhagavad Gita the former Cabinet minister said his Hindu faith gives him strength and recalls one of his proudest moments when as Britains first Indianorigin Chancellor he lit Diwali diyaas outside No 11 Downing StreetIt faith gives me strength it gives me purpose Its part of who I am It was one of my proudest moments that I was able to do that on the steps of Downing Street It was one of my proudest moments of the job that I had for the last two years And it meant a lot to a lot of people and its an amazing thing about our country he saidSunak is going headtohead with Foreign Secretary Truss in the race to win over the Tory members eligible to vote for their new party leader via postal ballots to be mailed out early next monthUnlike his frontrunner winning streak with his party MPs selecting the two finalists in internal ballots this month Sunak is now an underdog in the race to replace Boris Johnson as surveys indicate a comfortable lead for his opponent Truss promise of cutting taxes from day one is seen as only one of the factors behind this popularityThere is also a significant number within the estimated 180000 Tory voters who remain fiercely loyal to Johnson and view Sunak as the minister responsible for his hastened departure after the former Cabinet ministers resignation set off the current events in motion for the governing partyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever