TORY MP Richard Holden says this week’s TV debates will decide who will be the next Prime Minister.
Mr Holden told GB News that he believes many Tory members are undecided on whether to pick Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak.
And he believes many will wait until the debates next week before making their decision.
Mr Sunak, who is backing Sunak to become PM, says he was on the side of the former Chancellor as he felt he had the most sensible plans and could offer the best chance of the Tories beating Labour.
Sunak, he said, would win seats in the north of England and also take on the SNP to stop them breaking up the Union.
Speaking to GB News, Mr Holden said today (SUN): “He’s got a proper plan for the economy.”
Speaking to GB News, Mr Holden also said he felt Sunak was the best person to take on Labour in the key Northern seats that might decide the next election.
He told GB News: “I think he’s got a proper plan for the economy: deal with inflation first, then move on to tax cuts. I think that’s a sensible way to go.
“I also genuinely think Rishi Sunak is the best person, best placed to take on Labour in the north of England and North Wales and also help our Scottish colleagues to stop the SNP breaking up the union.
Asked if he was worried for Rishi regarding polling inside the party, he said: “So a few people definitely decided to go for Rishi, a few people definitely said for Liz Truss. But a lot of people are still in the balance. So I think these TV debates over the next few days are going to be really crucial. I also think that we want to see both candidates out and about in the country.
“We have to deal with pandemic issues and we have to pay for the NHS to get that COVID backlog sorted out. So many of my constituents, so many people know someone or have family or a friend who is on an NHS waiting list at the moment. But I think the real issue we’re all facing now is the price of inflation. You can see it in the shops with petrol, which has come off a little bit from its massive highs. But we’ve got to get that under control because otherwise, even if you’d have a tax cut now, all it’s going to do is get eaten up by inflation.
“When Rishi has been able to do tax cuts, and he has done some recently he has always targeted working people on the lower wage and it is exactly what I want to see him doing in the future.
“Rishi is also putting in a massive investment allowance because the big issue is productivity. What he said is you can avoid those increases if you really push cash into investment into the economy to help upskill.
” If people invest in the UK, they can avoid the tax hikes and that’s the sort of incentive we need to see businesses getting.
Asked how Sunak is going to get wages rising, he said: “A fundamental issue of all of this and actually an issue facing not just our country, but across the world, is that the only way we can get in the long term real wages rising is by increasing productivity. That’s the sort of thing Rishi has really pushed forward on. He’s been called a super deductor. What it really is, it’s about ensuring investment to enable productivity to rise. It’s been absolutely a keystone of what he has pushed over the last couple of years.”
“The minimum living wage has substantially gone up over the last couple of years. We could only pay for that with productivity increases. You can only pay for that with a thriving private-sector…that is the big thing we really need, for productivity to grow. That’s how you get the money back into the private sector with the delivery. And one thing I am really concerned about at the moment, and which would really drive us into recession is if we saw interest rates rise, really hitting families.
That’s why I think Rishi’s plans are sensible. When it comes down to it, Rishi has always targeted the support you can give on lower paid workers, the working poor in Britain, and he’s trying to make them wealthier rather than targeting tax cuts elsewhere.
“I’m confident that not only does he understand, but he’s demonstrated to me on a local and national level he’s on the side of working people.”
