'Rishi Sunak fails to notice that a race track also means going round in circles just to end up back where you started'
Rishi Sunak launched the Conservative party manifesto today at Silverstone race track using it as an analogy to argue that “our economy has turned a corner.”
The Tory leader said Formula One is a ‘great’ example of Britain’s tech and skills sector and of “all our strengths coming together” as he went on to lay out the Conservative offer to the electorate.
He used the comparison to launch the Conservative manifesto in which he focused heavily on claiming to be, once again, the party of tax cuts, pledging £17bn in tax cuts by 2028/29, paid for by cuts to welfare.
In his speech Sunak said “we Brits can outcompete the best in the world” and that the Tory manifesto will deliver more British success stories.
However Sunak’s attempt to re-frame the narrative on the economy and present the Tory Party as best placed to “turn that foundation into a secure future” did not go down well, as commentators turned his Formula One analogy against him.
One X user said: “In another “he’s definitely thought this through” moment, Rishi Sunak fails to notice that a race track also means going round in circles just to end up back where you started.”
Another said: “Formula One has a lot of car crashes and breakdowns, Rishi Sunak being the latest.”
Guardian columnist John Crace wrote on X: “Tory manifesto launch at Silverstone. Going round and round in circles going nowhere. Wheels coming off. Crashing out at the first corner. Getting lapped. The pits.
“The jokes rather write themselves today”
Crace added: “First manifesto launch I have been to where the leader has given a demotivational speech.”
Sunak was also at risk of losing the room, according to The Guardian’s Political Editor Pippa Crerar, after he said at the start of his speech that Brad Pitt was filming nearby, in an attempt to boast about Tory tax cuts in the creative sector.
Pippa Crerar wrote on X: “Rishi Sunak launches Tory manifesto at Silverstone race track… and risks losing the room immediately by pointing out Brad Pitt is filming just outside.”
Count Binface, who ran in the London mayoral election, said: “Silverstone is the perfect place for Rishi Soon-Axed to launch his manifesto. He loves a fast getaway.”
During his speech Sunak also hit out at ‘eco-zealotry’, said Rwanda flights would leave in July and announced they want to end self-employed national insurance contributions.
Greenpeace has hit out at the Tory Party manifesto and what it means for climate policy.
The environmental campaign group said: “Silverstone may have been the setting for the launch of this manifesto but it reads like a car crash for the planet.”
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