By Stefan Boscia
All of Rishi Sunak’s pledged policies during the Tory leadership contest are now under review, Number 10 has said.
The Prime Minister’s spokesperson today said “we’re looking at all” of his campaign promises from just two months ago and “considering whether now is the right time to take them forward”.
Number 10 also told journalists today that Sunak was not committed to explicit policies in the Tories’ 2019 election manifesto, but the “promise of the 2019 General Election manifesto”.
Sunak has already U-turned on several of his policies from the campaign, after bringing back a ban on fracking last week and scrapping his plan to make people pay £10 for missing NHS appointments.
He also vowed during the leadership race to stop housing new migrants in hotels, before this week ordering more hotel beds to be made available for people being kept at a makeshift Kent detention centre.
A Number 10 spokesperson said that “with all of those campaign pledges a percentage will stay”, but that Sunak will “sit down with secretaries of state and work that out”.
“He’s been in the office for just over a week now. He’s working with his colleagues on how best to take forward his policy platform,” they said.
Sunak said in his first speech as Prime Minister last week that he would “deliver” on the “promise of” the Conservatives’ 2019 election manifesto, which pledged increased spending on infrastructure and public services.
Sunak and chancellor Jeremy Hunt are now preparing to announce real-term spending cuts this month, along with a series of tax rises in a bid to control government borrowing.
The Prime Minister said in his leadership campaign that he would cut the basic rate of Income Tax to 19p by 2024, however this is not expected to go ahead anymore.
He is also considering dropping the government’s target to repeal or replace all retained EU legislation by the end of next year.
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