Rishi Sunak indicates he would not take cabinet post under Liz Truss | Rishi

Rishi Sunak has suggested he would not accept a job offered by Liz Truss as prime minister, saying cabinet ministers “really need to agree with the big things”.

The former chancellor said it was difficult when those at the top had fundamentally opposing views, adding: “I wouldn’t want to end up in a situation like that again.”

He gave the answer to Vanessa Feltz on BBC Radio 2 as she pressed him on rumours that Truss could offer him the job of health secretary if she wins the Tory leadership as expected.

“I am not focused on all of that and I doubt Liz is,” he said. “I am not thinking about jobs for me or anyone else. One thing I have reflected on as well a bit is being in a government, in cabinet, over the last couple of years, you really need to agree with the big things. Because it is tough, as I found, when you don’t. And I wouldn’t want to end up in a situation like that again.”

Sunak, the underdog in the leadership contest, also gave his strongest criticism yet of Truss’s economic programme for government and accused his rival of “promising the earth to everybody”.

Asked whether he had failed to be politically savvy in a contest vying for the votes of 200,000 rightwing Tory members, Sunak said: “It is being honest and, for better or worse, that is what I am going to do.”

He said: “I’d love a tax cut, who doesn’t? But I think my priorities are the right ones for the country right now. Liz’s plans are promising the earth to everybody. I don’t think you can have your cake and eat it. I don’t think life is that simple, and I think her plan risks making everything worse.”

His campaign earlier claimed Truss would plunge the economy into an “inflation spiral” if she does not choose between her unfunded £50bn tax cuts and providing cost of living support.

Sunak’s campaign said Truss would increase borrowing to “historic and dangerous levels” and place public finances into “serious jeopardy” if she attempted to do both.

An ally of Sunak’s, Kevin Hollinrake, suggested people would be homeless “on the streets” without further help to pay energy bills this winter.

The MP for Thirsk and Malton told Sky News that promises by Truss’s campaign to cut taxes would provide only an extra “pound a week” to the poorest households, whereas it would provide “to the tune of about 30 a week” to a household like his.