We have to be honest with voters that things will be difficult, but the new PM has started well and the signs are encouraging.
Unusually for the day when a new prime minister assumes office, there was no celebration and no line of Downing Street staff to welcome him in.
Moreover, there was little time for reflection on an extraordinary milestone, both for the Conservative Party and the nation as a whole – our first ever British-Asian PM.
That is because we face some of the most difficult weeks and months ahead, certainly that I have seen during my time in frontline politics.
Britain is still suffering from the aftershocks of a global pandemic, where we had to do previously unthinkable things to protect lives and livelihoods.