Rishi Sunak had admitted his pledge to ‘stop the boats’ couldn’t actually be delivered, with the former prime minister revealing he regrets ever coining the slogan.
The incendiary slogan became a lightning rod for Sunak and the Tories in the build-up to last year’s general election, and is perhaps the main phrase associated with Sunak’s time as prime minister.
But the Richmond and Northallerton MP has now said he regrets ever saying it because it was “too stark” and “too binary.”
Speaking to Nick Robinson on the Political Thinking podcast, Sunak the inflammable slogan was the main thing he regretted from his time as prime minister.
He said: “The way it was communicated wasn’t quite right. It was too stark, it was too binary and I probably should have put those priorities – which I still believe were the right priorities – in a better context for exactly how challenging it was.”
Sunak continued: “The communication around it was too stark, and that was very much a reflection of mine and a lesson from it. I thought there was a value in clarity.”
However, he said the idea behind the slogan was still sound and one he supported.
“Our generosity is limitless, and our compassion is limitless, but our resources are not,” he said. “It’s just fundamentally unfair, and fairness is central to our national character, and when people see this happening, I think it undermines that sense of fairness on which our society, our way of life, is based on.”
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