Rishi Sunak said he could understand the public’s frustrations as he faced a live TV grilling from voters on issues ranging from the NHS to his Rwanda asylum plan.
The Prime Minister, who was asked why traditional voters should back his party and not the Nigel Farage-linked Reform UK, told one questioner he could “completely appreciate your frustration”.
“It’s been a tough couple of years,” he said.
“When we go through the things that we’ve been through as a country, energy bills more than doubling again, (but) starting to come down, the economic strain that’s put on all your family budgets, the impact of Covid on NHS backlogs waiting for appointments, all of those things are real things that will cause you and everyone else an enormous amount of frustration.
“I can completely understand that, but I think fundamentally, what you want and what I want are the same.”
The Prime Minister was questioned by GB News viewers live on the channel in a “people’s forum” on Monday evening, with the station gathering a cross-section of voters in Co Durham.
Mr Sunak defended his tenure heading into a general election later this year, as he addressed a roomful of voters.
Switching between attacking Labour and defending the Tories’ record, he warned “undecided voters” that choosing to vote Labour will be going “back to square one”.
Questioned on the NHS, he said: “I don’t need to tell you the damage that Covid has done to so many things in our country, but particularly it’s caused backlogs in the NHS.
“Whoever was prime minister, whoever was standing here tonight, there will be backlogs in the NHS because of what happened. You all know that, you are fair-minded people.”
Mr Sunak said the Government was investing “more money than the NHS has ever had”, and large numbers of doctors and nurses were being trained for the long term.
He added: “I probably will not be around in the 14 years that it takes to train the consultant that we’re now starting to invest in, but it’s the right long-term thing to do for our country, which is why I’ve done it.”
Mr Sunak was also forced to defend the Rwanda plan, as peers in the House of Lords debate the flagship policy aimed at stopping migrant crossings in the Channel.
One voter pressed him on why he was “so adamant” about the Rwanda policy “when public documentation shows it isn’t working and that it’s not going to work”.
The Prime Minister responded: “In order to fully solve this problem, we need a deterrent.
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“We need to be able to say pretty simply and unequivocally that if you come to our country illegally, you won’t get to stay.
“We want to be able to remove you either to your home country if it’s safe, like we’ve done with Albania, and for everyone else we need an alternative and that’s what Rwanda is about.
“So yes, we’ve made progress – down by third – but in order to fully solve this problem, we need a deterrent. That’s what Rwanda is all about and that is why I’m absolutely committed to getting this bill through Parliament and getting this scheme up and running.”
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