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Rishi Sunak will mark his first anniversary as Prime Minister on Wednesday with the party reeling at the loss of two former Conservative strongholds to Labour.<\/p>\n
His MPs are clamouring for him to unveil policies that will convince Tory voters to go to the polling station and avert a Labour landslide.<\/p>\n
They want him to win over working class voters who turbo-charged Boris Johnson\u2019s 2019 victory and see off the threat from Reform UK, the rebranded Brexit Party.<\/p>\n
The Tories would have won both the Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth by-elections if the people who voted Reform UK had backed the Conservatives.<\/p>\n
Champions of Mr Sunak insist this is \u201conly the beginning for the PM\u201d and say the country can expect him to announce major decisions in the months ahead.<\/p>\n
READ MORE <\/strong> Rishi Sunak painted with Hitler moustache as 100k march in Palestine protest<\/strong><\/p>\n Downing Street plans to present the next election as a straight choice between the Prime Minister and Sir Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n A Government source said: \u201cThe choice at the next election will be a simple one: does the public want Rishi Sunak, who shares their priorities and has shown he is willing to take the tough decisions the country needs for a brighter future, or Keir Starmer who has proven again and again that he believes in absolutely nothing whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n Exclusive polling by WeThink shows voters are divided on which man they would trust most to deal with the Middle East crisis. Thirty-two percent said Sir Keir with 32 per cent naming Mr Sunak, and 36 percent are unsure.<\/p>\n The Government source insisted that the Prime Minister had demonstrated in his first 12 months in the job that he could be trusted with power, saying:<\/p>\n \u201cIn just a year the PM has used our Brexit freedoms to rip up EU red tape and sign a trade deal with the fastest growing region in the world, passed the toughest laws ever to stop the boats and brought crossings down by a fifth, introduced new rules to block Just Stop Oil\u2019s attempts to shut down our roads and highways, published the first ever long-term workforce plan for the NHS so we train more doctors and nurses for our children and grandchildren, and has brought inflation down by almost half so that people\u2019s hard-earned cash goes further.\u201d<\/p>\n They added: \u201cThis is only the beginning for the PM \u2013 in the months ahead he will show he is on the side of the British people and will take the long term decisions so that we all have a better, brighter future.\u201d<\/p>\n The party is reported to be considering slashing stamp duty or abolishing inheritance tax to appeal to aspirational voters.<\/p>\n But a former cabinet minister said it is \u201cfar too late\u201d for such measures and claimed that the \u201cmajority of the cabinet are going to lose their constituencies\u201d.<\/p>\n They said: \u201cThe parliamentary party is reaping what it has sown. Once you\u2019ve ejected a democratically elected prime minister, if anyone thinks there is a road or pathway to recovery from that they are absolutely mad. Look at what happened when the Conservative party assassinated Margaret Thatcher. We never recovered.\u201d<\/p>\n Nigel Farage, Reform UK’s honorary president, said Mr Sunak cannot turn around Tory fortunes in time for the election expected next year. \u201cNo one believes what the Tories say anymore and that won\u2019t change,\u201d he said. \u201cMinds are made up.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/139\/590x\/secondary\/5025794.jpg?r=1697915542871\")
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