Sunak mocks Johnson, Truss and Hancock in speech to political journalists
Rishi Sunak mocked predecessors Liz Truss and Boris Johnson as well as former Health Secretary Matt Hancock in a speech to journalists on Thursday evening.
The Prime Minister addressed the Westminster Correspondents’ Dinner, a formal meeting of political journalists in central London.
In the light-hearted post-dinner speech, Mr Sunak took aim at his former boss, Mr Johnson, as well as the short-lived prime minister, Ms Truss.
Amid a series of gags about his own dress sense and Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer, Mr Sunak joked about karaoke sessions at the upcoming Tory conference in Manchester.
He said: “I’ve heard around that Nadine (Dorries) and Boris are doing Nothing Compares 2 U. Liz Truss apparently covers Shaggy’s It Wasn’t Me.”
“I’ll be performing Elton John’s classic Tiny Dancer,” he added, joking about his own height.
In another swipe at Ms Truss, Mr Sunak said: “It’s been a pretty good year in British politics. We are almost a year to the day away from what we would euphemistically refer to as “the events that led to me becoming Prime Minister.”
Days after the former prime minister gave a speech defending her time in office, the current prime minister said he was glad the Tory MP had been “quietly thinking about it, not least about who was to blame”.
The Prime Minister also joked about the former health secretary losing the Tory whip over his appearance on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!
Mr Hancock, a regular user of the social media app TikTok – who will stand down at the next general election, also appeared on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
Mr Sunak said: “Looking back on this turbulent year, perhaps no one has had a busier year than Matt Hancock. It’s hard to keep up – I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
“And that’s just one of the reasons why I’m so proud to have introduced the Online Safety Act. It aims to prevent the spread of harmful, malicious and undignified content – just like a 44-year-old former health minister lip-syncing to a Barbie song on TikTok.”
The Prime Minister concluded his speech with a tribute to the late BBC newsreader George Alagiah, who died of bowel cancer earlier this year aged 67 after being first diagnosed in 2014.
He said: “I grew up watching George’s fearless, compassionate reporting on television. From the horrific genocide in Rwanda to the hopeful Mandela years in South Africa. A brilliant, brilliant journalist, a kind and humble man in every way.
“He represented the best of this country’s long and noble tradition of journalism.”
