Sunak looked like a man who was running the country - until he wobbled

Rishi Sunak seemed more positive than of late, he spent less time apologising, he smiled and he seemed to connect with the audience - BBC

Had this been a presidential election, Rishi Sunak would have come away from the Question Time debate feeling he had a good chance of winning.

Where the audience made it clear to Sir Keir Starmer that they did not trust him, with Mr Sunak it was his party and his predecessors that they disliked, rather than him.

Unfortunately for the Prime Minister, Britain does not have a directly elected leader, meaning the problems that have stacked up over the past 14 years, rather than the past 18 months under his premiership, will be what loses him the election, if the polls are right.

Mr Sunak seemed more positive than of late, he spent less time apologising, he smiled and he seemed to connect with the audience better than Sir Keir had done.

He also showed a welcome flash of steel when he was asked about the gambling allegations overshadowing the Tory campaign, telling the audience: “If anyone is found to have broken the rules I will make sure that they are booted out of the Conservative Party.”

For a change, he looked like the man who was running the country, rather than a luckless challenger.

There was, however, a wobble, and it came when he was pressed on the issue of compulsory national service, one of the Conservatives’ most eye-catching policies.

How, Fiona Bruce asked, would he force young people to national service?

“Sorry?” he spluttered, as if it was the first time he had been asked to consider it.

There are a range of things other countries do to enforce national service, he said: driving licences, access to finance…

Was he suggesting that anyone who did not do national service would be banned from driving? Or have their bank accounts closed? It certainly sounded like it.

No no, he insisted - a Royal Commission would look at all of the alternatives and report back.

He recovered from that and told the audience member who asked about trusting him to do better: “My grandparents came to this country with very little and I’m standing here as Prime Minister. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to this country and I’m in this because of what this country has done for my family.”

On the issue of whether Britain should leave the European Convention on Human Rights if it stood in the way of the Rwanda scheme, he said he would put the security of the country first and “I make no apology for that”.

Several people in the audience shouted “shame!” but those back at Tory HQ are unlikely to have cared about that. They already know that committed Labour supporters don’t like the Rwanda scheme, and they will also know that for those concerned about immigration, seeing Mr Sunak standing up to them might just have won him back a few more votes from people flirting with Reform UK.

Play The Telegraph’s brilliant range of Puzzles - and feel brighter every day. Train your brain and boost your mood with PlusWord, the Mini Crossword, the fearsome Killer Sudoku and even the classic Cryptic Crossword.