Rishi Sunak's chances 'impacted' by his references to Silicon Valley in California: Report

The team of Rishi Sunak, who is one of two candidates vying to be Britain's next premier, thinks that the former finance minister's references to the Silicon Valley in California might have impacted his chances in the Conservative Party leadership contest.

Sources within Sunak's Ready4Rishi campaign team told The Daily Telegraph that they felt things were not going the right way when Sunak mentioned Silicon Valley three times in 10 minutes in a debate.

In the first week of August, Sunak was asked about the career he would choose as a young graduate at Eastbourne, during a debate at Eastbourne.

Sunak was trying to woo Tory members for the voting, between him and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, when he answered the question about the career he would choose as a young graduate by reflecting on the "culture" of enterprise he saw while living on the West Coast of the US between 2004 and 2006.

He replied, "I think it's incredibly inspiring and empowering. If I was a young person, I'd want to go and do something like that."

The report mentioned that his answer made the team think that Sunak's focus is on California showed he was out of touch and summed up his failure to win over grassroots Tory members.

The recent polls have shown that members are backing Truss by more than two to one. It means the chances of Sunak succeeding are slim.

A source on the campaign told the newspaper, "People started to say that it wasn't going to happen now and he wasn't connecting with voters in the room."

The source said, "He kept talking about California and tech. It became an open secret within the campaign that he wasn't going to win. That hustings was the point things really took a turn as everyone started to realise that."

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