emergency as a result of soaring energy bills? i absolutely accept that and i know millions of people are worried about inflation and particularly the cost of their energy bills, and that's why i wanted to provide them with some reassurance and peace of mind over the last couple of days as we're starting to learn more about what might happen to energy bills in the autumn. and what i've said is, if i'm prime minister i will go further in supporting those families that most need our help because the situation is worse than we thought when i announced quite significant support earlier this year. let's see how much worse, let's look at the figures we've got now. we can see them coming up in the screen just now. that was the average energy bill in october �*21, just under £1300. the projection that we've now got for what energy bills will be this october is more than £3,500! is it the moral responsibility of this government to make sure that people do not feel that they cannot heat their homes as a result of these bills? yes, i do believe that. and that's why as chancellor, i announced very significant support, particularly targeted at the people who most need our help. some help for everybody, but extra help for those on the lowest incomes and pensioners, who also are on fixed incomes and struggle particularly in the winter. but those numbers are worse than the numbers i was looking at as chancellor when i announced that support, and that's why i do feel a moral responsibility as prime minister to go further and get extra help to people over the autumn and the winter to help them cope with what is going to be a really difficult time. i think that's the right priority, that's what my plan is about and actually, alternative proposals that don't focus on that, i don't think are right and i don't think are actually, quite frankly, the moral thing to do, as you say. let's do what you might do, let's take an example. let's take a man called graham who spoke to the bbc. he's a pensioner, this is what he told us. "i don't have the oven on, the hob on or the grill "because it costs too much. "i'm using the microwave, the electric kettle and the shower. "i can't afford the energy now, i won't be able to afford it "when it goes up in october, i don't know what i'm going to do." can you tonight tell graham precisely what you'll do? will you give him as much money again as you did when you were chancellor? yes, so someone like graham is going to receive around £850 of help with their energy bills over the course this year, from the things i announced as chancellor... but in future? i will go further than that, and what i will tell graham is of course i'm going to go further because the situation is worse... how much further? ..because pensioners are exactly the type of people that need extra help. look, it's hard for me here, nick, to put a precise figure on it because i don't know the numbers. i've just shown you them. that's not the official numbers from ofgem, the regulator, who will provide a precise estimate relatively soon. give us a guide because a lot of people are anxious about this. yeah, in order of magnitude it looks like the situation is around £400 worse, give or take, than we thought when i announced the support earlier this year. now, that gives you a sense of the scale of what we are talking about extra. and then, we have to think about how do we split that up? what do we do for the most vulnerable people on the lowest incomes? what do we do for pensioners and what do we do for hard—working families, as this affects everybody. so, for pensioners who are watching, people like graham, you would intend, would you, to match what you did last time, to make up that 400 quid he's going to lose? so, what we did previously was when the bills were going up around £1200, pensioners were receiving about £850 of extra support and the way we were going to do that and the way i announced as chancellor, there's some universal support for everybody, which obviously pensioners benefit from. so, this autumn, for example, people's energy bills will be discounted by £400. on top of that, though, graham and millions of pensioners like him, will receive something called a winter fuel payment, which is worth up to £300. and what i said as chancellor is that we would double that payment. now, that's the obvious thing to increase given that we... what you have done, what we know is there has been this vast increase, a doubling in the bills over the year and people want to know what you are going to do. what i would look to do is the extra payment that pensioners are going to receive this winter in november and december that i announced as chancellor, i would look to increase the value of that. you'd increase that, you'd increase the payment for people on benefits, you've often... and also... ..talked about targeting, will you not do anything for families who are not pensioners, who are not designated as poor and not on benefits? i will and the way to think about this is in three parts. my plan is to help people in three ways. first is, i want to help everybody. because this is, as you've just said, this is something on such a scale that millions of families are going to struggle with this, so it's right that everyone receive some help and my way of doing that is to cut vat on energy bills this autumn. that's £150 on average, it is dwarfed by the scale of the extra bills. you say £400 extra, some say 500, some say six and some predict 800? i think given the higher bills, actually the vat cut will be worth more, but remember that comes on top of the £550 of support that all those hard—working families are already going to receive. so it gets a total support for them at something like, whether it's 700 to £800. that's the first group. second group are those on the lowest incomes and normally, the welfare system would make sure that it keeps pace with inflation. now, because of what's happening, that's not working as normal. so what i suggested is we provide extra top up payments to those very vulnerable families. i would go further as prime minister, and we've talked about the extra amount that that is. and then lastly, for pensioners i propose an extra payment in the winter and again, that's where we would go further. when your opponent, when liz truss was talking about the help she'd give in the form of tax cuts, you said these are unfunded spending commitments. haven't you just tonight, on this programme, even though you're not being specific, made a huge unfunded spending commitment of what, a few billion pounds, over £10 billion? what would you say it was? well, it's much closer to the former than the latter of what you've said. a few billion pounds? because that's the scale, if you look at the scale of the problem we're talking about, and then it depends exactly how we spread that around and provide most help to those who most need it. look, there is a huge difference, you ask a fair question, but there is a huge difference between what i'm suggesting, which is temporary, targeted, timely support to deal with a specific challenge, compared to what liz is proposing which is £50 billion worth of extra borrowing, notjust this year, but every year, primarily, by the way, for very large companies and wealthy people... well, i'll ask her if i get the chance but i want to ask you, where is this money coming from? billions of pounds, you didn't... but, nick, can ijust finish the point because there is a big difference here, right? there is a big difference, and i will answer your question but there are two different approaches. my approach and my priorities are to help people with the cost of living and to tackle inflation, and to do that in a way by directly supporting those who most need help. now, liz's approach is not to worry so much about inflation, mortgage rates, extra borrowing of £50 billion. the tax cuts that she's proposing are not going to help graham, they are not going to help graham. they are not going to help the millions of people who don't pay enough tax... you, as chancellor, increased people's taxes, you put money and national insurance, you made millions pay more in income tax by changing the thresholds. where is the sense in saying to an average worker, "i'm going to take £230 a year off you in national insurance, "i may take more in income tax, and then i'm going to give you some "of that money back in order to deal with your energy bills"? it doesn't make sense and it's not very conservative, is it? actually, what i did do for the average worker is raise the amount that people can earn before they pay a penny of national insurance. but what is the answer to that, taking money off people on one hand and giving it back with the other? that is a really progressive tax cut that helps people on low and middle incomes the most, actually, it puts £330 in the pockets of hard—working people up and down the country. that's what i did. did we need to raise extra money for the nhs? yes, we did to help recover from covid, to deal with the issues and social care. it may not have been an easy thing to do, but it was the right thing to do and i'm sure we'll get onto talking about the nhs. we will indeed. but let's get back to the cost of living and this point. there is a big difference, because tax cuts that liz truss is proposing largely benefit large companies... you've talked about liz truss�*s plans, i want to talk about you. no, this is still an important... mr sunak, this is an interview with you. i still don't know specifically what you'll do, i don't know what it'll cost and i don't know where the money will come from. let me say to you... let me answer that because you asked. actually, i have given you a framework for how we're going to help people, there's three different parts of it. we know the way we're going to help everyone is by cutting vat and then in terms of sizing exactly how much we provide for the pensioners and for those on the lowest incomes, i do need to wait to actually see the numbers and see what the price cap is and figure out what the right approach for country is. but people canjudge me on my record. when we thought bills were going up by £1200 earlier this year, i made sure the most vulnerable received around £1200 of extra help. what martin lewis says, who is the money—saving expert, well known around the country, is this is a crisis on the scale of the pandemic. and you need to be prepared to spend as much as you did the last time you tried to help. and you're being very clear, you're not going to spend on anything like that much. you spent 15 billion last time, you're telling me you'll spend just a few billion. you see, some people think, are you serious in your support for the vulnerable? let me just raise another example with you, you've talked often for example about levelling up and the importance of levelling up. just a little while ago, when you weren't talking to the great british public, when you were talking to conservative members in leafy tunbridge wells in kent, you talked about how you would change the rules about who got money and who didn't, just take a look at this. i managed to start changing the funding formula is to make sure the funding formulas to make sure that areas like this are getting the funding that they deserve. cos we inherited a bunch of formulas from the labour party and shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas and that needed to be undone. i started the work of undoing that. so, money should not be, in your words, "shoved into deprived areas". you talked first about making sure we support the most vulnerable. when i announced the support earlier this year to help with energy bills, people like martin lewis, respected independent commentators, indeed, the bbc actually all said that the support i announced was well targeted, it helped the poorest and was well designed. what's the answer to what you said on that clip? i'm going to get onto that, but it's worth saying that, right, because that's my track record in helping people with energy bills and you can go back and look at the bbc website or indeed all the other independent commentators... i reported on it at the time. and you remember that, right? so, that's my record, i went and talked to martin lewis at the time about it as well. on that, i stand exactly by what i said... what, shovelling money into deprived urban areas is wrong? there are lots of places that need to get investment where opportunity needs to be spread. yes, they exist in rural areas, too. they exist in small towns. it's notjust very large big cities that are the only places that require government support and government investment... mr sunak, when you talked about levelling up what the conservatives meant when they talked about levelling up... no, hang on... is we are going to give money, hold on, we are going to give money to royal tunbridge wells, not to wigan or sunderland or wolverhampton? hold on, we are doing all of that. but where have i been in the last couple of days, i can give you two examples. i was in the isle of wight. and they've been asking for on the isle of wight for a long time? recognition that actually providing public services in an island economy is different and they want that to be recognised. i've started working with them on that as a local government minister. where was i last night? in darlington. now, darlington is not a big city, but darlington and teesside is still a place i want to make sure that government investment is coming. now, we've got a lot to get through... but it's not a big city and that's what i was talking about and there'll be lots of people watching this who don't live in big cities and they will agree with what i'm saying and say, "i live in a town, i live in a rural area and it's right we get investment, too." there's a lot of priorities you identified and i want to give you the chance to go through those emergencies, so let's move on to another you called an emergency — the state of the national health service. two thirds of conservative party members in a recent poll said that the nhs already had enough funding. you said to conservative members you needed to stop the nhs, and i quote, "swallowing up so much money". is that it, the nhs has got as much as it needs then? hang on, five minutes ago, you were saying i raised all this extra money for the nhs so that people canjudge me on my record. i know the nhs is the most important public service. it's right that it gets extra funding to help recover from covid and deal with the issues in social care. that's why i did something that was politically difficult for me, make sure... why did you tell tory members that it was, "swallowing up too much money?" from this point on, it's absolutely right that we focus on getting reform and efficiency out of the nhs. now that everyone is contributing more, no—one can say we are not funding the nhs, i think that's clear and i'm getting criticism for the funding that i've put in. well, i think people do say, who run the nhs, that there isn't enough money. let me just give you an example that you might want to address, 94—year—old ken. ken had a nasty fall and he called an ambulance at 2:58 in the morning. the ambulance should have come in 18 minutes�* time. he waited more than five hours. this is what he said to the 999 operator. "i need an ambulance because i'm going to fade away quite quickly. can you please tell them to hurry up or i shall be dead?" tragically, he was dead, just a little while longer. you can't really say that the nhs has got all the money it needs now, can you, and that it needs to stop swallowing up cash? yeah, i do think the best way to help people like ken and sort of make sure that that situation doesn't happen again is to make sure that the nhs is reformed. because we need to use the resources that we're putting into it, which are occupying a large amount of everyone�*s pay packets. we spent the first 15 minutes of this talking about, how are people going to afford energy bills? well, if we're going to have to keep putting more and more money into the nhs, then people are going to have less money in their own pockets to pay for things like energy and food. so it's right that we get the balance on these things right. i already did something very difficult by putting more money into the nhs. no—one can accuse me of starving the nhs of funds when i've taken a lot of political flak for doing that. so, now, i think it is right... i think it is right that we focus on reforming the nhs and getting more efficiency out of it. ok, no more money, you've been clear about that. let's move to another emergency, then. another emergency is the climate change emergency... well, just... before we move on... just before we move on, mr sunak, because we're going to run out of time. i know we are, but this is important, because here's an example of something we do need to do on the nhs. i want to tackle the issue of missed appointments. cos at the moment, almost 15 million appointments are missed in the nhs, but if we could change that... everyone in the business says it would raise a trivial sum of money. ah, but, nick, that's the point. it's not about raising money. it's about changing... well, it is if you're waiting five hours for an appointment. no. no, this is really important. this is really important, because this is the most important public service. it's not about raising money. it's about having people cancel appointments in advance. if they do that, suddenly, we've created more availability in our health care system and people won't have to wait as long, they'll get treatment quicker and we won't have had to spend another penny of taxpayers�* money. that's the type of reform we need. we've talked about the economic emergency. we've talked about the health emergency. let's talk briefly — if you don't mind, lots to get through — about the climate change emergency. same poll of conservative party members, two thirds of them say that the target of reaching net zero by 2050 should be relaxed or delayed. are they wrong, and would prime minister sunak tell them they're wrong, "no, i'm going to get on with it"? i've said very clearly i believe in our net i believe in our net—zero target by 2050, but we need to make sure that we're getting there in a way that is bringing people along with us. so, it can't be about everyone having to give things up and everyone�*s bills going up. we need to get there by focusing on things like innovation. by creating the new types of energy that are going to power our homes, and do it in a clean way and an affordable way. but if they say, "this is costing us too much, we shouldn't do it, we should delay it," you say "no"? because i don't think that's necessarily the case. i think we can do it in a way... look at offshore wind. that's a great example of something which, today, because of the investments we've made, the technological improvements, is providing clean energy for all of us, at a fraction of the price of fossil fuels. lots more emergencies to talk about. that tells you what is possible. but if we have an economy that i know how to build, that promotes innovation, we'll be able to get there. borders. yes. you identified our borders as another emergency in your list. now, you backed brexit. millions of people agreed with you, they voted with you, because they wanted to "take back control" — are the words of the slogan — of our borders. you and the conservatives have repeatedly promised to get net migration down to tens of thousands a year, is that promise now dead? i think the most pressing migration problem we have is that of people coming here illegally, in small boats across the channel. i'm sure most people watching this programme will agree with that. and i've set out a detailed plan for how we can grip that situation and actually properly control it to make sure that we do have security on our borders. given that there are more than tens times more people... and that will require us to be bold... and it will require us... and it will require us to do some difficult things legally, which i am prepared to do. i know you want to talk about something else. there are more than ten times as many people who come into the country legally each year. again and again, you as a conservative promised that you would get that number down to tens of thousands. the current figure, net migration, is 240,000 a year. now, there are perfectly good arguments to say immigration�*s a good thing. it gives workers to companies who need it. it helps man the nhs. what does prime minister sunak, if you become prime minister sunak, say? no problem with that level of immigration? my biggest priority with immigration is that we are in control of it. and having voted for brexit and spoken to lots of people about it, that's what they want, too. they want to make sure that everyone who is coming here is coming here for a reason that we want, that we've said yes to, and that's the important thing. so, providing it's legal, it doesn't matter what the numbers are? yeah, well, of course, i want to make sure that we're providing opportunities for british people, and that's why i want to make sure our welfare system is working and we're supporting people off welfare and into work. ok, let's move on to another area. but the number—one priority is tackling illegal migration... rwanda, we got the point. ..and i do want to make sure that we get a grip of that, and i have a plan to do that which everyone, if they've got two minutes tonight, can have a look online and find my plan. "take back control of our borders," that was the phrase. just look at this photograph, if you would. let's take a look at the photograph. that was the queue at dover at the beginning of the school holidays, people waiting sometimes seven hours. is that what you meant by taking back control? well, we've been talking about two very different things, right? it's the border. apparently, we're in control of it. look at it! and the government has talked about this, right? we need to make sure that, on the french side, that appropriate staffing is in place so that these delays don't happen, which are obviously unacceptable. but you and the government told us we would take back control of our borders, and you're now saying "oh, it's not our fault". i'm not... "it's the french". i'm not in government at the moment, obviously! but i think the reality of this is there needs to be appropriate staffing levels, and that doesn't seem like it was the case, from watching from the outside, not being in the government any more, and you'd want to make sure that that was fixed, obviously. it seems to many people that it's very easy to get into the country as a migrant, it's almost impossible to leave it. well, as i said, that requires the government to make sure that the french are appropriately resourcing their side of the border. so, we're not in control of the borders, the french are at the moment. well, we're in control of our own borders, yes. i think every country should be in control of the people coming into their country. that's what i want to make sure that we have a grip of when it comes to illegal migration. let's turn to another emergency. arguably, the biggest emergency of them all. even bigger, perhaps, than the economy and, in part, helping to create all those problems in the economy. i'm talking, of course, about the war in ukraine. if you do become our next prime minister, you know what will happen within months. there'll be voters at home, there'll be newspaper editorials and maybe other world leaders who say to you, "is it really worth "crashing our economy, is it really worth us struggling "to heat our homes, to make sure that russia can't control the town "of kherson or mykolaiv in ukraine?" will you argue with them if they say that? no, ithink, actually, the right policy is the one that we have in place, and the prime minister deserves enormous credit for being one of the first leaders to recognise the threat. the defence secretary deserves credit for being one of the first to make sure that we provide arms to ukraine. i would continue with that policy, continue re—strengthening ukraine and continuing to weaken russia. i did that as chancellor. i put in place a set of economic sanctions — together with my colleagues from around the world — that are tightening the grip on putin's war machine, and i would want to do more of that as prime minister. and actually, when it comes to energy, one thing i was working on as chancellor was a different way of doing the sanctions on russia, to see if we could find a way to do it which would actually mean that we don't have such high energy bills and could cut off the supply of money to them, and i'd like to find a way to make that work as pm. uou're clear, you've taken policy decisions that you think put putin in the spot. but people wondering whether you can be our next prime minister might say, "hold on, this guy's only really "been in the treasury since he's been in the cabinet. "he does policy, he sits in offices doing this. "has he got the ability to stand toe to toe, "to look in the eyeball a dictator? "will they take him seriously as our prime minister "in that sort of conflict?" yes. because throughout my career, in politics and before, i've been willing to stand up for things that i believe in and fight for them. you talked about brexit. a lot of pressure was put on me not to support that and i did. when it came to locking down the country last december, with omicron, that's what lots of people wanted to do. i stood up against the system and i said no. when it comes to wanting to reform the nhs, i'm prepared to have some difficult conversations. so, yes, being tough and making sure that i focus on the things that matter is core to who i am. as chancellor, i designed a very stringent packet of economic sanctions to do exactly that with putin. the only reason we're having this conversation — the only reason there is a vacancy — is perhaps the last emergency i wanted to ask you about. not one you defined, but one that others do. an emergency of the standards in our public life. you've just talked about being tough. you've talked about standing up to people. you said that borisjohnson was "on the wrong side of an ethical question," which is why you had to resign from his cabinet. did you look him in the eye, did you stand up to him and say, "prime minister, you're no longer fit for thejob, you should go"? i resigned. did you say that to him? no, ijust resigned, nick. it was clear he was not going to go. he'd made that crystal clear. did you ever stand and look him in the eye, tell him what you thought, tell him why he should go? well, i've had many conversations with the prime minister over the time that i've been in office with him. i'm sure... well, i know we talked about lots of things, right? and i'm not going to sit here and talk to you about private conversations i had, that wouldn't be right. iassume, mr sunak, if you had, you'd tell us. you see, your critics say... well, no, actually, nick... ..you resigned by tweet. you did it after thinking about it for months. you did it after other people had resigned first. and that isn't brave, they say. no, actually, resigning is a difficult thing to do, and i did it because it came to a point where enough was enough for me. i had a big difference of opinion on how to manage the economy. it's not possible for a chancellor and a prime minister not to be on the same page on that, and you're seeing that in this leadership contest, because there are two very different approaches to how i think we should do it. but you did use this phrase... but also... you did use this puzzling phrase about "the wrong side of an ethical question"? yes. could you translate that into fluent human, so that our viewers know what on earth you mean? well, i'm referring to the chris pincher situation, which is well—documented and we don't need to go over it all now, but i wasn't happy about how that was handled. you think he was unfit to stay in the job? i didn't feel that i could defend that, so i wanted to resign. ok. right? and i was actually left with no choice. let's end our conversation by talking about you, because you are trying to persuade conservative voters, as well as members, that you should be our next prime minister. but before we get onto that, you're right to raise it as an emergency because i do think there has been a breakdown in trust because of the issues of the last several months, and part of why i'm sitting here is because i want to restore trust back into politics. i want to put integrity and honesty at the heart of how i run government and how i want to be prime minister. and as you can see in this leadership contest, i've been doing that, right? i haven't been saying the easy things. and actually, i'm prepared to lose this contest if it means that i've been true to my values and i'm fighting for the things that i think are right for this country. i'd rather lose on those terms than win by promising false things that i can't deliver. that's very interesting, mr sunak, because you've said there's an emergency when it comes to standards in public life. now, let's just end by talking about you in this contest that you're in. you were once the favourite. you now talk of yourself as "the underdog". why do you think you're losing, if you are? well, i think it goes back to what i was just saying. i knew what i was doing when i got into this and i was going to tell people what i think they needed to hear, not necessarily what they wanted to hear. as i said, i would rather lose having fought for the things that i passionately believe are right for our country and being true to my values than win on a false promise. isn't the problem that, in the language of boris johnson, he's what you... ..you are what he calls a "gloomster", when what the country needs is a "booster"? nick, we started this programme, you put a graphic up there that talked about energy bills going up to almost £4,000. look, no amount of boosterism language is going to help graham figure out how to get through the winter. what we need is someone who actually understands what's going on, has got a clear sense of how to manage our economy through what is going to be a challenging time, focus on getting the help to people like graham that we've talked about and then bring this country to a place where it can look forward to a much brighterfuture. that's what i can do. no amount of starry—eyed boosterism is going to solve any of the emergencies that we've just talked about. you see, aren't you a little bit like... you know what it's like when you have a personal emergency — the boiler breaks down, you call in the plumber, and you're like the guy who says, "look, it's worse than you thought. "it's going to cost you a fortune. "i know i charged you a fortune in the past." the country wants someone who just says, "don't worry, i can fix it." yeah, and that's what i'm going to do, nick. and it's not me saying that, you put the figures up because those are the figures that are happening. that's what people are going to have to grapple with. people know that i've got the experience to deal with challenges like that. there was a press conference a couple of years ago, where i stood up and there were millions of people who were enormously worried about what was about to happen to this country, and i put in place the systems, the processes to get our country through it and make sure that we were resilient on the other side. i will do that again and lead us to a much brighterfuture. finally, injust under half an hour, you and i have gone through a whole series of emergencies. there's a whole lot more i'm sure you wanted to say on lots of them. an emergency in the economy, an emergency over energy bills, an emergency in the nhs, an emergency with our borders and our standards in public life. when you discover who's been running the country for the past 12 years, you're going to be really cross, aren't you? well, no, actually, there was lots that i was very proud of to have participated in in government, right? and we talked about the pandemic response. you know, protecting over 10 million jobs, saving businesses, ensuring that our economy remained resilient through the worst shock it had faced in 300 years. i'm proud of what i achieved in government. i'm not going to run away from that. and actually, that's why people should now look at me as the person who can be the person to lead us forward. i've got the experience to handle difficult things. they know that because they've seen it. myjudgement is right about tackling inflation and tackling the cost of living, and they can trust me, because as they've seen in this leadership contest, i've been honest with them about challenges. doesn't make my life easy, but that's how i am. that's how i'll be as prime minister, i'll be straight with people, and that's what leadership is about. rishi sunak, thank you very much indeed forjoining me tonight. thank you. now, we did invite liz truss — the other candidate in this contest — to do an interview about her plans if she becomes our next prime minister. so far, she hasn't been able to find a time or a date to do it. the invitation, of course, remains open. we're told she's still considering it. so, perhaps until then, it's goodbye from me. thanks for watching. hello, i'm christian fraser. you're watching the context on bbc news. donald trump refuses to answer questions in a new york deposition, invoking his right against self—incrimination. it comes days after the fbi executed a search warrant at his florida estate, mar—a—lago, as part of a separate investigation into the handling of classified documents. the war in ukraine started in crimea, after explosions on the island yesterday. zelensky says the war can only end with its liberation. ten years ago, the bell rang, signalling manchester united's arrival on the new york stock exchange. later in the programme, we'll tell how much an investment of £1,000 would be worth today.