Rishi Sunak vows to stay on as MP and ‘isn’t thinking’ about job in Liz Truss Cabinet

Rishi Sunak has said he is not “going anywhere” and that he will stand again for his North Yorkshire seat at the next election.

Mr Sunak lost out for the race to become the next Tory leader and next Prime Minister, with 43% of the the votes cast in the party leadership race, to Liz Truss’s 57%.

There has been speculation he would quit politics, but he told the BBC that he intended to stand again for Richmond at the next election.

Asked if he would take a job in Ms Truss’s Cabinet, he said: “It is just not something I’m thinking about.”

He said: “I’m very committed to my constituents in North Yorkshire and as long as they’ll continue to have me I plan on serving them not just in the immediate future but also at the next election.

“So that’s my plan, I don’t plan on going anywhere, it’s a real privilege to be their member of Parliament”.

The former Chancellor had clashed with Ms Truss over her policies during the eight-week-long campaign, with Mr Sunak’s team accusing her repeatedly of risking even higher inflation with her policy of tax cuts.

However, Mr Sunak told the BBC that he would get behind Ms Truss, saying “there is far more that unites us”.

“Liz has said very clearly that she is going to provide support for households during winter and that’s a good thing,” he said.

"Many people are going to struggle and it is right they are going to get some help through that".

The pair’s well publicised disagreements over policy in hustings up and down the country were “in the past”, he added.

Ms Truss will become the next Prime Minister on Tuesday after an audience with the Queen at Balmoral.

She is expected to set out her vision for Government in an address from Downing Street on Tuesday afternoon, and to appoint new faces to the Cabinet.

Her in-tray will be dominated by the cost-of-living crisis, with the Foreign Secretary vowing in a victory speech on Monday that she would “deliver” on the British public’s priorities.