The Herald talks to PM Rishi Sunak and Stratford Conservative candidate Chris Clarkson
Stratford’s been a safe Conservative seat since the modern constituency was established 1950, and for the first time it’s looking in danger. What do you put that down to?
Rishi: Well look, we don’t take any vote for granted. We fight very hard everywhere and for every person’s support and the choice of this election is really important.
Of course I understand people’s frustrations with me, with our party. It has been a difficult few years but this is not a by-election on Thursday, this is a national vote. It’s a really important choice about the future of our country and the impact it will have on you and your family.
So don’t hand Labour a blank cheque that you then can’t get back. I want to keep cutting your taxes, protecting your pension and securing our borders.
Labour are going to do the precise opposite of those things. I don’t think people actually want that so they shouldn’t sleepwalk into it. They just need to come out, vote for Chris, vote Conservative.
Candidates like Chris have the Herculean challenge of ingratiating himself with the local constituents who seem him as an out-of-towner – is that winnable?
Rishi: It’s really important for everyone to know that Chris was selected by local members here. So it was local people in this constituency who know their community inside out who selected Chris to be their candidate because they believed he would be the best person to represent this community; and having worked with him for the past few years in parliament I can completely confirm that and say they’ve made the right decision because Chris is someone who works his socks off for his local community.
He’s a brilliant parliamentarian. His values are the same as those of everybody here, and when I’ve been walking around talking to local residents they already know who he is. They’ve seen how hard he’s been campaigning, talking to people, making sure he’s on top of their concerns and I’m really confident that if he, like all of us, is fortunate to represent this community in parliament he will do an absolutely incredible job in making sure people’s voices are heard and being their champion in Westminster.
Die-hard Tories have been moving away from the party, saying they are going to vote for the Lib Dems or Reform because they want a local voice. Is that something you have picked up on?
Chris: It’s not really what we’ve been picking up. I’ve been knocking on doors seven, eight hours a day every day since I was selected by local members. As I’ve said to you before, I have a record of taking safe seats from other parties and turning them into marginals. I’m happy to take this marginal and work really hard to turn it into a safe seat for the Conservatives.
But you know what, people are, understandably after 14 years, having to think about what they’re doing, but actually we’ve got a really strong positive offer for the area. I’m really enjoying the conversations on the doorstep and quite frankly I don’t want to be anywhere else.
Are you worried that after 74 years the seat might go away from the Tories on Thursday?
Rishi: We never take anything for granted but we are confident because our offer is the right one.
There’s a really important choice on Thursday and if you want your taxes cut, if you want your pension protected and you want our borders secure then the only way to get those things is to vote Conservative.
A vote for anyone else is just going to put Keir Starmer in Number 10 and you’re going to get the precise opposite of that.
If you hand him a blank cheque you are going to face thousands of pounds of tax rises and not a single person that I’ve spoken to here thinks that that’s something that will be good for them and their families.
