Rishi Sunak urged to be more radical or risk losing red wall voters en masse
The Guardian Rishi Sunak has been warned he risks losing Tory red wall voters en masse, as northern MPs called on him to cut taxes, build more homes and extend devolution.
Pressure is mounting on the prime minister to move on from his initial phase of leadership, which was designed to steady the party, and press ahead with offering a more inspiring vision to voters before the next election.
Ben Houchen, the Tees Valley mayor who is a poster boy for the partys success in northern England and was awarded a peerage in Boris Johnsons resignation honours list, said those who voted Tory in 2019 wanted to vote for the party again.
But at the minute, were not giving them the excuse and the reason to be able to do so, he told delegates at the Northern Research Group (NRG) conference in Doncaster on Friday. We have time. We need to deliver.
Houchen credited Sunak and the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, for having reintegrated the importance of fiscal responsibility in the Conservative party, a thinly veiled swipe at Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng.
