Rishi Sunak speech: Prime Minister to give pre-election pitch claiming UK facing ‘dangerous years’ ahead

Rishi Sunak has suffered a fresh embarrassment ahead of his speech after former Tory donor Puneet Gupta has announced he has switched his support back to Labour.

Mr Gupta, who owns Scottish-based supplier PG Paper, recently gave £50,000 to the Tories and visited Downing Street.

However, he accused the government of “stagnating” describing Mr Sunak’s performance as “highly disappointing.”

Mr Gupta has previously been a Labour donor giving money to Scottish Labour MSP Anas Sarwar’s failed leadership campaign in 2017.

Former Conservative Party communications director Amy Fisher says the Prime Minister plans to “sweep away the disastrous local elections results” with his speech.

The former Tory member told Talk TV: “This is not without its dangers, Sunak is not the most charismatic of politicians!”

As Angela Rayner prepares to be interviewed under police caution, her shadow cabinet colleague says she is under attack because she is “a working class success story”.

Speaking exclusively to The Independent, Mr Streeting said that the whole saga “makes my blood boil” and he accused his colleague’s critics of attacking her because “she is a working class success story”.

Former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi seems to have already moved to new pastures.

He will replace interim chair Aidan Barclay at the company which is part of the Barclay family’s business empire.

The company, which owns Very and Littlewoods, said in a statement that Mr Zahawi would work with the directors and management team to explore expanding the business in new areas.

Labour frontbencher Catherine McKinnell has accused the Conservative Party of sitting on Elphicke lobbying claims.

The shadow schools minister has called for an investigation into why the Tories didn’t address the concerns.

She told Sky News: “I am really baffled by this because this happened four years ago and he has sat on these concerns that he says are very serious to a newspaper and has not done anything about it for four years.

“So I am as baffled as anybody else by these assertions. Obviously Natalie says they are not true, it is not her recollection of the meeting and so she says it is nonsense.

“I just can’t quite understand why, if something is this important and as serious as he is alleging, why it wasn’t addressed at the time. That is very concerning to me. So I think that is something that probably does need to be looked into.”

Sir Keir Starmer has come under pressure to investigate claim Elphicke “lobbied minister to intervene in husband’s trial”.

Ms Elphicke allegedly told Sir Robert that it was unfair her ex-husband’s case was the first to be heard at Southwark Crown Court after the Covid lockdown and that it was being overseen by Lady Justice Whipple, The Sunday Times reported.

Rishi Sunak will use his speech to outline bold ideas on how to fix a country at crossroad.

In a desperate move to convince voters he will:

• Promise to tackle new threats including security.

• Address the ongoing war in Gaza.

• Outline his intention to capitalise on artificial intelligence to transform people’s lives.

• Promise to rebuild the confidence of the British public.

Shadow schools minister Catherine McKinnell has said she would welcome more Conservatives to the Labour Party.

Speaking to Sky News, she said: “I think it’s really important that we’re not tribal about politics, that we are open to people coming round to our way of saying things and our way of wanting to do things.”

While Rishi Sunak gets ready for the speech, Natalie Elphicke’s defection is still haunting him.

But some Tories have used the move to slam the Labour Party for accepting the former Conservative.

Maria Caulfied, a health minister, has said that she believed voters would view Labour as “playing games”.

She told Sky News: “I think actually it has probably backfired on the Labour Party more than anyone.

“I just think people will think that Labour are playing games. We are busy as a Government, as I said, tackling obesity, improving maternity care, turning the economy around, we had 0.6 per cent of growth last week, higher growth than France, Germany and Spain.

“That is what we are focusing on, the PM’s going to be talking about defence later today, meanwhile, Labour are playing games over which MP they can get to cross the floor.”

Rishi Sunak is set to deliver a major pre-election speech following elections losses.

The Primer Minister will attempt to convince Brits to vote Conservative outlining his plan for the next few years.

He will say: “I have bold ideas that can change our society for the better, and restore people’s confidence and pride in our country.

“I feel a profound sense of urgency because more will change in the next five years than in the last 30.

“I’m convinced that the next few years will be some of the most dangerous yet most transformational our country has ever known.”