Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Rishi Sunak said he has a “clear conscience” knowing that he has worked as hard as he can to do “right for the country”, as the General Election campaign drew to a close.

With opinion polls suggesting the Prime Minister is leading his Conservative Party to defeat, Mr Sunak said he could “look myself in the mirror”.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Mr Sunak issued a warning to would-be Reform UK voters that they would “get the opposite of what they want” if they backed Nigel Farage’s party, because it would “enable a Labour supermajority”.

Mr Sunak said he always sought to “work my socks off to deliver for people and make a difference for them”.

He added: “In terms of how I do this job, I work as hard as I can, I do what I believe is right for the country.

“That ‘clear conscience is the softest pillow’, as my father-in-law says.

“As long as I can look myself in the mirror and know that I am working as hard as I can, doing what I believe is right for the country, that is how I get through, and that is what I believe I am doing.”

He added: “I am someone who has the courage of my convictions, I’m not someone who changes their opinion with the weather, which is what Keir Starmer does.”

In one of his final interviews on the campaign trail, Mr Sunak insisted he was not yet willing to reflect on his time in office.

“This election is still ongoing. This election is ongoing. I am campaigning hard for every vote,” the Prime Minister said.

Read More

Mr Farage’s Reform UK is polling narrowly behind the Conservatives in third place in most national opinion polls.

Asked what his party’s post-election response to their narrow lead over Reform should be, Mr Sunak insisted he remained focused solely on polling day itself.

Speaking at a primary school in Hampshire, he said: “You have had a very clear message from me to those people about what I think they should be thinking about, because they will get the precise opposite of what they want if they vote Reform.

“I know that might strike them as unfair, but that is the system that we have.”

He reiterated that a Tory return to office would lead to tax cuts, protected public pensions, a “sensible approach” to net zero, and secure borders.

He added: “If those are the things that you value and you want, then you have to vote Conservative to get them.

“If you don’t you are just going to enable a Labour supermajority which is going to deliver the precise opposite of what you want.”

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.