Rishi Sunak says he has “absolutely not” given up on winning the general election on 4 July, despite talking about the prospect of a Labour “super majority”.
The prime minister told the BBC his party had not “got everything right” and said he understood people’s frustrations with him and the Conservatives.
However, he said people should be “alive” to the “danger” of a Labour government and warned the public against sleepwalking into the election.
Asked if he would stay on as Conservative leader, if defeated on Thursday, he said he loved his party “dearly” and would “always put myself at the service of it”.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has been trying to counter complacency among his own supporters, telling voters in Buckinghamshire that results would “go down to a few hundred votes in many constituencies”.
He said people should imagine “waking up on Friday morning to a further five years of Tory government”.
On Sunday evening, following the England football team’s last-gasp equaliser against Slovakia, Mr Sunak posted on social media: “It’s not over until it’s over.”
Asked if he would be attempting the political equivalent of a Jude Bellingham-esque overhead kick to improve his party’s standing, Mr Sunak, a keen cricket fan, said he was more likely to try a “flashy cover drive”.
He added that people were still making up their mind and that while not everyone would agree with him, he had the “courage of my convictions”.
Acknowledging that people had frustrations with the party and with him, the prime minister said it had been a “difficult few years” pointing to the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
He also said that on NHS waiting lists, he had not made “as much progress as I would like”.
Mr Sunak said he would be staying on as an MP after the election.
Asked if he would be staying on as leader of the Conservatives, Mr Sunak said he was focused on the general election campaign.
“I love this party dearly and of course I’ll always put myself at the service of it and the service of my country.”
