Grant Shapps blasts Rishi Sunak for making ‘everything a crisis’ while he was PM as ex-Cabinet minister admits he never believed the Tories could ‘stop the boats’

Tory former Cabinet minister Grant Shapps has blasted Rishi Sunak for making ‘everything a crisis’ while he was prime minister.

The ex-defence secretary, who lost his seat in the House of Commons at last month’s general election, hit out at the Conservative leader‘s strategy while he was in No10.

Shortly after Mr Sunak replaced Liz Truss as premier, he unveiled five pledges on the economy, NHS and Channel migrant crisis.

But Mr Shapps suggested he never believed that Mr Sunak could ‘stop the boats’ as he told voters among those promises.

Tory former Cabinet minister Grant Shapps has blasted Rishi Sunak for making ‘everything a crisis’ while he was prime minister

Mr Shapps suggested he never believed that Mr Sunak could ‘stop the boats’ as he told voters among his five key pledges

The ex-defence secretary lost his seat in the House of Commons at last month’s general election

Speaking to the Political Currency podcast, Mr Shapps said: ‘Rishi Sunak’s strategy with his pledges, it was almost like he made everything a crisis.

‘And the problem is those five pledges were things that are actually just bread and butter, like ‘Let’s have a government that grows the economy or doesn’t have rampant inflation, or keeps debt under control, or, you know, cuts the waiting list and stops the boats’.

‘The moment I heard [‘stop the boats’] right from the outset, I was saying, ‘Hold on, this is like saying ‘stop crime’.

‘No one’s going to stop all crime, so don’t make a claim that is never going to be provable.’

Mr Shapps remarks contrast with his public statements on the former PM’s migration pledge while he was a member of Mr Sunak’s Cabinet.

In April last year, Mr Shapps wrote on X, formerly Twitter: ‘I just voted to #StopTheBoats because those that come here illegally must be detained and removed.’

In a separate post, he said: ‘Labour have voted against the Rwanda scheme over 100 times, yet they don’t even have their own plan to stop the boats.’

The ‘stop the boats’ pledge also formed a key part of the Tory manifesto that Mr Shapps stood on at the general election.

He also told the podcast the Tories ‘don’t need to be chasing’ Reform UK, the party fronted by Nigel Farage.

‘In terms of Reform more broadly, we have to understand that people in this country want to vote for a party that is probably centre-right,’ Mr Shapps added.

‘So the Conservatives don’t need to be pushed around. We certainly don’t need to be chasing Reform or even more extreme views in this country.

‘People who voted Reform were quite often Conservative voters. They were my voters who said, ‘Look, we like you. We actually want to vote Conservative. You just have to give us some reasons to vote. And first of all, could you start by not arguing with yourselves?’

‘It’s not that they love Reform policies. It’s that we just weren’t being a decent enough government and we need to be a decent opposition now.’