Rishi Sunak tonight made his first stump speech, kicking off the Tory election campaign with an appearance at the Excel Centre in the East End of London. The Prime Minister took to the stage after James Cleverly served as his warm-up act, reliving the role he played in the last election as party chairman and Tory cheerleader. The contrast between the two men emphasised the message which Sunak wanted to land. While Cleverly’s speech was relaxed and off the-cuff and relaxed, Sunak stuck to his autocue and talked up the importance of security in this election, using variations of the word eight times in his ten-minute speech to the 100-odd attendees.

Wearing the same rain-drenched trousers from his earlier appearance at the Downing Street lectern, Sunak sought to be a mix of punchy pugilist and sagacious statesman. The middle section of his speech touched on issues of high politics: Islamist extremism in the Middle East and a China ‘seeking to dominate the 21st century by stealing a lead in technology.’ Yet in the same breath that decried the weaponisation of migration by ‘hostile states’, Sunak then turned his guns on Labour, whom he declared would ‘enact a de facto amnesty for asylum-seekers making us a magnet for every illegal migrant in Europe.’ ‘In every way,’ he concluded ‘Labour would make our country less secure.’

In the boiling hot room of the ExCel Centre, a few activists were spotted sweltering under the light but Sunak was not one of them. ‘On the 5th of July either Keir Starmer or I will be prime minister and he has shown time and time again that he will take the easy way out,’ he continued. ‘Let’s get out and do this’ he finished. Speaking afterwards, one minister likened Sunak’s speech to the successful Tory manifesto of 2015, which promised ‘Security at every stage of your life.’ From energy policy to economic resilience, this was an attempt to bring together the broad strands of Sunak’s eighteen-month-long premiership into a coherent, electorally-appealing message.

With just 43 days to go until polling day, Sunak faces an uphill battle to turn things around in such a short space of time. But Tory strategists are hoping that hard-hitting policy announcements in the same vein as tonight’s speech will help make this a much more competitive election than many of their critics claim it will be.