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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hit out at his critics.Credit:AP

In his first speech as leader to the Conservative party conference in Manchester,in which he painted himself as a “change prime minister” who would make long-term decisions,Sunak said he would not cop criticism from those doing less.

“I decided to take a pragmatic,proportionate,and realistic approach to reaching net zero,” Sunak said. “And I won’t take any lectures from other countries that have done far less than us.”

Sunak said Britain would still meet its net zero target,which is enshrined in law.

The British government has been languishing in the polls after last year’s political turmoil,when the party changed prime ministers three times in two months.

Some surveys show Sunak’s ratings improving after he announced delays on a ban on new petrol and diesel cars,and the phasing out of gas boilers. Tory MPs,including previously strident critics of his,believe they could be competitive at next year’s election.

In his most personal speech to date,he said he was proud to be the country’s first British-Asian prime ministership but even prouder that it was “just not a big deal”.

Last week,Sunak’s firebrand Home Secretary Suella Braverman told an American audience that multiculturalism had failed – but Sunak said the UK was the most multi-ethnic country on Earth and his own selection as a Conservative MP was proof.

“Never let anyone tell you that this is a racist country.”
Rishi Sunak

“One American magazine even sent a reporter to Yorkshire to write about how a candidate of the wrong race[could] cost the Tories one of the safest seats in England,” Sunak said.

“They should not have projected their own prejudices onto our country. The people of North Yorkshire were not interested in my colour,but my character,” he said.

“Never let anyone tell you that this is a racist country.”

Sunak’s wife Akshata Murthy,the daughter of an Indian billionaire,made a surprise appearance,taking to the stage to introduce her husband and “best friend”.

She said he had “honesty,integrity and a firm understanding of right and wrong”.

Sunak pledged to take long-term decisions and branded Labour leader Keir Starmer as the “walking definition of the 30-year political status quo that I am here to end”.

He scrapped a major high-speed rail project that was to connect London to Manchester and said the funding would be allocated instead to rail,road and public transport projects across the north,where “red wall” voters abandoned Labour for Boris Johnson at the last election.

Sunak’s speech was aimed at unifying his deeply divided party ahead of the election campaign,due before the end of January,which has all but started.

Steve Baker,a minister who had backed Braverman for leader over Sunak,said after the speech that he wished he had backed him for leader “years ago”.

Tom Hunt,a Convervative MP elected in a previous Labour seat,said the prime minister had time to turn the polling around.

“I saw leadership today,and I’m 100 per cent behind it,” he said.

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