With the Tory Party trailing in the opinion polls, Rishi Sunak had a trump card at the Conservative conference: his wife.
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00:00I'm afraid he does love a good rom-com.
00:02So you'll be relieved to hear that episodes of Emily in Paris
00:06are not informing his outlook on the EU.
00:09Getting together with Rishi almost 20 years ago
00:13was not the easy route.
00:15It meant, in our early days together,
00:18a complicated, long-distance relationship.
00:30I'm not on the agenda for today.
00:45A bit of a surprise edition, shall we say.
00:49And a surprise for my husband, too,
00:52who has no idea what I'm going to say.
00:59When I told our lovely girls, Krishna and Anushka,
01:02about being here today, they were also quite surprised.
01:06But look, the reason why I'm here is really quite simple.
01:11And it's because Rishi and I are each other's best friends.
01:16We're one team.
01:18And I could not imagine being anywhere else
01:22but here today with all of you to show my support to him
01:28and to the party.
01:30As you'd expect, there's been a lot about Rishi in the media,
01:34about who he is, what he likes, what he doesn't like,
01:38what motivates him, and so forth.
01:41Now, some of it is accurate.
01:43I'm afraid he does love a good rom-com.
01:46The cheesier, the better, even.
01:50And some of it is not so true.
01:52So you'll be relieved to hear that episodes of Emily in Paris
01:56are not informing his outlook on the EU.
02:00But in all seriousness, though, as we gather here today
02:05to look to the future of the UK,
02:08I'm so grateful to have this chance to talk to all of you
02:12about the man who is leading us there.
02:14Now, let me start with one word that sums up my husband,
02:18and that is aspiration.
02:21Aspiration runs through his DNA like it does this party's.
02:27Aspiration is what drove his family many years ago
02:31to move to the UK.
02:34And aspiration is what drives Rishi
02:37to build for a better country and a better life
02:40for all our young people to look forward to.
02:43Rishi and I met when we were 24,
02:46when we were both studying abroad in America.
02:50Right from the very beginning,
02:52I was struck by two things about him.
02:55No, not his smart suits or his love for hoodies.
02:58He actually didn't own either back then.
03:01But two much more important things.
03:05His deep love for his home, the United Kingdom,
03:09and his sincere desire to ensure as many people as possible
03:15have a chance to have the opportunities
03:17he was lucky enough to have had.
03:19Getting together with Rishi almost 20 years ago
03:22was not the easy route.
03:25It meant, in our early days together,
03:28a complicated, long-distance relationship.
03:31But let me tell you, on the other hand,
03:34being with Rishi was the easiest decision of my life.
03:38He's fun, he's thoughtful, he's compassionate,
03:43and he has an incredible zest for life.
03:46As you may know, Rishi is the son of a GP
03:49and a pharmacist.
03:50His parents moved to the UK from East Africa with very little.
03:57But they built here a life for themselves
03:59and for their children.
04:01For Rishi's dad, being involved in his patients' lives
04:05beyond the doctor's surgery was a big part
04:08of how he saw his role.
04:10Rishi's mom trained as a pharmacist.
04:12And years later, after saving enough to open her own shop,
04:16she, too, went above and beyond the call of duty
04:20to build deep-rooted relationships
04:22with her customers.
04:23It meant Rishi and his younger brother and sister
04:26grew up in a household entrenched
04:29in their community in Southampton.
04:31And they were wholly devoted to it.
04:34That love of community grew in Rishi, too,
04:38from a very young age as the most natural extension
04:41of how he sees home.
04:44And that connection with people
04:46is the source of his political life.