Rishi Sunak's California references may hit his poll prospects

London, August 28

Former UK Chancellor and PM hopeful Rishi Sunak’s team feels his references to the Silicon Valley in California early on in the campaign to succeed Johnson as British PM may have impacted his chances in the Conservative Party leadership contest.

A paper quotes sources within Sunak’s Ready4Rishi campaign team to claim that it was when he mentioned California for the third time in less than 10 minutes that they felt things were not going the right way.

Staff back at his campaign headquarters felt his focus on California showed he was out of touch and summed up his failure to win over grassroots Tory members as polls showed members backing Truss by more than two to one. “The energy price thing is such a dominant feature that whatever was discussed earlier on in the campaign is irrelevant now,” said a Sunak loyalist. — PTI

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He kept talking about California and tech. It became an open secret within the campaign that he wasn’t going to win. — A source on the campaign