LONDON: Rishi Sunak, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, paid a visit to the Bestway Healthcare Service Centre in the Stoke on Trent area on Monday as he intensifies his campaign in the final week of the country's general elections.

British-Pakistani entrepreneurs Lord Zameer Choudrey, the group's chief executive, and his son Haider welcomed the 44-year-old PM at the business centre.

Lord Zameer said: "With the 2024 General Election campaign coming to its climax, we were delighted to welcome the Prime Minister, The Right Honourable Rishi Sunak, to our Bestway Healthcare Service Centre depot in Stoke on Trent on Monday.

"Keen to see first-hand results of the significant investment which has been poured into our multi-channel site by the Bestway Group, and which delivers to over 760 Well Pharmacies and over 5000 independent pharmacies every day, houses our online digital pharmacy, our online OTC shop, our centralised script fulfilment centre and holds around 10m packs of medicine in stock, the prime minister was impressed by the levels of automation and innovation that make the HSC such a successful operating model."

After taking a tour of the site, the PM also attended a "Question and Answer" session during which he was asked about funding plans for the pharmacy.

In response to the query, the prime minister, who also comes from a family of pharmacists, spoke passionately about his own experience of the value of the pharmacy community and spending much of his youth helping his family with prescription deliveries.

He also expressed his support for the expansion of the Pharmacy First programme.

The PM said: "My mum was also a pharmacist. Thank you Lord Choudrey and Haider. We are thankful and hold in gratitude to what pharmacy sector workers do."