MICHAEL Portillo believes Rishi Sunak will narrowly lose the next General Election to Keir Starmer.
The former Tory Minister also warned how he fears the UK is on a journey of decline while Asia and the US, “race ahead”.
Speaking on his GB News show, Portillo, he said the short period Liz Truss had in office has changed everything.
He said: “Liz Truss was Prime Minister for just the blink of an eye, but her few days in office have impacted British politics profoundly.
“The Tories have learned that there can be no tax cuts. In fact, just the opposite, tax rises must rise from their already historic high levels. The reason is that public spending cannot be controlled. In particular, the National Health Service gobbles up an ever greater share of our national wealth. It’s inefficient, wasteful, accident prone, and produces worse health outcomes than other systems. But nobody knows how to reform it.
“Tory MPs are in the vanguard of seeking higher spending on other things like defence, and absurdly protecting the legacies of the middle classes who fear that they’ll be swallowed up. No plan for restraining spending means relentless increases in tax. The Labour Party has learned if it proposes huge increases in spending, everyone will know that the markets will revolt. The frailty of governments before city traders has been revealed.”
On the way he expects the Labour leader to react he continued: “Starmer will be content that the wild people in his party have witnessed cold reality with Truss’ demise. He has to do nothing other than be the alternative to this government. Normally Labour would struggle to prove that it could be economically competent, but after the Truss disaster, the public believes Labour couldn’t be worse.
Offering his prediction for the next election, he added: This is hard luck on Rishi Sunak. His party’s poll ratings have already improved and he should benefit from better than feared interest rates and falling energy costs. I think he’ll get a Northern Ireland protocol deal. So he may end up losing the general election quite narrowly. But Britain is set on decline.
Ironically, having left the European Union our policy is now identical to our neighbours. We Europeans are on a complacent decline as the United States and Asia race ahead.”
