Rishi Sunak hails Thatcher influence: ‘She had the courage of her convictions’

theguardian.com:

The Tory leadership candidate Rishi Sunak has said Margaret Thatcher was one of the Conservative thinkers who has had the most influence on him.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sunak said he was “privileged and humbled” that politicians close to the former prime minister had endorsed the plans he has set out for the economy.

He discussed his plan for tackling the cost of living crisis, rejected calls from the energy sector to freeze the energy price cap, suggested his rival Liz Truss’s plans were “complacent”, and said he would want his legacy as PM to be an overhaul of education.

Asked which Conservative thinker had most influenced him, Sunak said: “There’s not just one person, there’s a range. The key challenge in this debate is around the economy; there’s been a lot of talk about our greatest Conservative postwar prime minister is obviously Margaret Thatcher, and I’m very privileged and humbled that all the people who have familiarity with her approach to managing inflation – not just Nigel Lawson [the former chancellor], the head of her policy unit, other chancellors as well, have all endorsed my approach.”

He said of Thatcher: “She knew that you have to grip inflation. Tax cuts funded by borrowing aren’t a sensible approach. But also … one thing I admire and respect about her, and I think many other Conservatives do as well, is she was prepared not just to say the easy things that people may have wanted to hear.

“She said the things that may have been difficult to hear but were right for the country, and had the courage of her convictions. And that’s the standard that I hold myself to. I don’t want to make promises that I can’t keep. And that’s why I believe my plans are the right ones for our nation.”

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