How Rishi Sunak relies on his Hindu faith to help him through the election

Rishi Sunak has revealed he relies on his Hindu faith to help guide him through the election campaign.

The Prime Minister, 44, said he followed the concept of duty - dharma - which helps to give him strength.

Dharma is the religious and moral law governing individual conduct and prioritises effort over outcome.

Mr Sunak, in an interview with The Sunday Times, denied he had been left frustrated as he had not been rewarded by the public after taking on the role after Liz Truss’s chaotic 49 days in Downing Street.

He said: “In Hinduism, there’s a concept of duty called dharma, which is roughly translated as being about doing your duty and not having a focus on the outcomes of it.

“And you do [your duty] because it’s the right thing to do, and you have to detach yourself from the outcome of it.”

Mr Sunak added: “But that is something I was raised with, and that is also something that gives me the strength to deal with the things that you’re describing, because I get fulfilment from just doing what I believe is right. Work as hard as you can, do what you believe is right and try, and what will be will be.”

He has a shrine in Downing Street for family worship.

Mr Sunak denied that Ms Truss was to blame for his party’s performance in the polls.

“I’m ultimately responsible for what I’m doing and no one else is,” he said. “It rests on my shoulders.”

He met Pope Francis at the G7 summit in southern Italy on Friday but he said they had little opportunity for a “long enough spiritual conversation”.

Mr Sunak added: “Look, we have had a tough time. That’s not someone’s fault that we had a pandemic and then a war in Ukraine, and that is a big source of the frustration and insecurity that people feel and all the damage that it’s done to our living standards over the past few years.

“It’s nobody’s fault. That is just the reality of the situation. But I really think that after a lot of hard work and resilience from everybody, we’ve got through the worst of that and we’ve turned a corner. The economy is growing faster than all our major competitors. Inflation is back to normal, wages are rising, energy bills are falling, so people can, I hope, start to feel more confident about the future.”

Mr Sunak, who described himself as “the original Brexiteer”, said that the UK was forging ahead in terms of exports.

“I was proud to support Brexit and it was the right decision for our country. We’re signing free-trade deals around the world, which have now led to Brexit Britain overtaking France, the Netherlands and Japan to become the fourth largest exporter in the world.”

The Prime Minister said Mr Starmer would “reverse all the progress” and he has maintained his commitment to keeping Britain outside the EU in his party’s manifesto.