Sunak suggests autumn general election, as Starmer says Labour ready for power

Sunak suggests autumn general election, as Starmer says Labour ready for power

This was meant to be his day K starmer’s opportunity to dominate the headlines with his vision for a labber government a vision shoulder barged down the news agenda when the Prime Minister nonchalantly announced this my working assumption is we’ll have a general election in the second half of this year

And in the meantime I’ve got lots that I want to get on with just to clarify you said second half of the year so you’re rolling out a May election I said look my working assumption is that we’ll have an election in the second half of this

Year because in the meantime I’ve got lots that I want to get on with so it’s not a definitive a door open should Rishi soon change his mind but the narrative labor desperate to push he’s bottled it if the prime minister is now hinting that it’s going

To be later in the year then I think the question is what’s he hiding this is a serious issue for the country if he can’t name a date then effectively he’s just squatting in Downing Street holding the country back with his dithering and delaying so he needs to come clean

What’s he hiding but I can tell you this we’re ready today’s location a state-of-the-art research facility in Bristol for a vision of the future from labor in a speech more promise than policy the promise was the party has transformed and ready to govern whether you’re thinking of voting labor for the

First time whether you always vote labor or whether you’ve no intention of voting labor whatsoever my party will serve you that’s who we are now a changed party no longer inthrall to gesture politics no longer a party of protest a party of service labor may be aheading the polls

But the fear here is voters still aren’t sure about the man in charge a point echoed by one of his own MPS and former labor policy Chief John crus who said at the weekend he found it difficult to identify the purpose of a future starm government but if two years in both

Labor policy Chiefs former or or whatever and voters don’t know what a k starm government would stand for what is it you are guessing wrong so I believe firmly that we’ve set out precisely what we’re going to do I’ve also said that these will be our priority and I’ve said

A number of times there’ll be good labor things we won’t be able to do in quite the way we wanted when we wanted so set out in terms what we’re going to do how we’re going to do it how we’re going to achieve it um and I take your question

As an invitation just to repeat that so that hopefully um those that still claim uh that we’ve not been clear can have another chance to um remind themselves of all the things I’ve been saying for many many months now seats like the newly created constituency of Bristol Northeast will

Be key to a labor win on these streets among their voters the reviews are mixed um well I’m a labor party member but I’m unsatisfied with him because why well if you ask the average show on the street they I am that’s exactly what I’m doing

Now yeah and if you ask them they say they don’t know what he stands for his policies his communication is not cutting through I like him but he need to um tear up a bit do you know I do like him do you think you know what he stands for no do you

Get a sense at the moment of what the labor party might be like in charge of the country under K St um yeah I guess so and I think that I would be sort of more swayed towards the labor party now were you’re not beforehand no I’ve always Ved conserv conservative yeah

That’s our future and this year we get it back thank you very much K starma promised to fight the Tories with what he called project hope he was hoping for an election sooner rather than later despite what the Prime Minister hinted at today he could still get

It well Paul is in Bristol for us tonight so Paul How likely is it that uh we’re going to have an Autumn election is it absolutely nailed on Paul well not nailed but it’s definitely looking more likely but that all important wiggle room remains and the belief among his key advisors was always

That a later election would be better and talking to back benches today some back benches who always haven’t been the biggest fans of Richie s they say yeah they think this is a smart move it will give more time for tax cuts to kick in maybe the economy turns around a little

Bit get to change the narrative have changed it considerably considering how far behind conservatives are in the polls they point out one sticking point though and that is the Rwanda bill and the prime minister’s illegal immigration Bill he’s had a trouble he’s had trouble so far get it through Parliament if that

Trouble remains if he can’t get it through Parliament that’s where that wiggle room comes in and possibly a May election more importantly for the Prime Minister though for the last couple of months whenever he stands in front of a microphone the first thing he’s asked is

When are you going to call an election for the last few weeks labor have been pumping out this line the worst kept secret in Westminster was that it was going to be m if he didn’t call it in May then he’s bottled it now he gets to

Say I bottled nothing I call the shots Paul thanks very much well earlier I spoke to Peter Kyle the shadow Science and Technology secretary and started by asking him whether rishy sunak had spiked Labor’s Guns by ruling out a spring election it’s not my guns I’m worried about it’s actually the country and

What’s in the best interest of the country he certainly hasn’t put country first he’s put party first and that’s the the fact of why why we have a squatter in Downing Street right now but we are putting a government a program of government together well you’ve got

Plenty of time for people to work out what K starma stands for some of your own colleagues are not entirely sure I mean one of them John crudder says that he’s an elusive leader difficult to find he’s detached from his own party do you know what he stands for I certainly do

And you saw it today K starm is all about public service and delivering for the public based on the priorities of the country what we saw today was K to put set out a decade of national renewal populated by five priorities for our country firstly and foremostly getting

Uh growth into the economy and then making sure also that we can change the tone and the conduct of public life people are crying out for a politics of unity those five priorities you talk about um are they all a bit mushy and a bit nebulous or are they secretly are

You secretly quite radical well I think uh if you actually understand what radical is in this day and age there are 7.72 million people waiting for treatment on the NHS radical for them for most people is getting getting the treatment they need uh radical right now

Is having a job that pays enough so you can feed your family throughout the whole week so we often talk about radical and some people on the left and some people on the right talk about radical in quite quite lofty terms but actually because of the way our economy

Has been run with no growth and high taxation because of stagnation and and uh the the holding down of wage wage increases for the last decade uh radical actually means being able to get a doctor’s appointment the next day for the vast majority of people who live in

Our country so these five missions actually are across government I mean I’ve been pouring over those missions today and there’s a lot of there’s a lot of words you know there’s a lot there in terms of wordage but it’s not very crunchy is it and I wonder whether some

Of it will be distilled into a pledge card like Tony Blair had well I always think I rad the Tony Blair pledge card today actually after I watched Kier speech and the first thing that struck me actually was how vague a lot of it was and actually some of it was was far

Less radical than people seemed to remember uh back in the the day what we saw today from Kier was actually quite sharp politics but also some very good clear Direction when it comes to how we will change should we get the opportunity our country our public services and our economy getting the

Economy to being the fastest growing in the G7 half primary mission that is radical because flowing from it actually is a transformation our Public Services needs and the wage growth that people needs for those hardworking Ordinary People out there so do you think he’s really more radical than Tony blur uh

What I said was that if you look at the proposal now this far out from an election I think you see a lot more detail and you see an enormous amount of ambition there and as we move towards the uh general election you’ll see a lot more detail there because it’s right to

Start setting a lot more detail out as you get to an election but already if you look at economic growth we’re going to reform the planning regulations we’re going to make sure that we get more of the infrastructure our country needs we’re going to unleash some of the potential that’s holding back our

Economy by embracing technology in a more uh in a more open and egalitarian way and make it more available for all parts of our economy and crucially get it into our Public Services as well K Dharma promised a politics that and a quote Treads lighter on people’s lives

Do you think people want politics to be a lot more boring now I think people want a politics that just is rooted in the interests of our economy public services and and just establishing a set of Rel relationships with all of the different people the the people and

Organizations that make our country work and those key Global Partners that make Britain its best at its best and what you saw today with Kia I think is somebody with energy somebody who had some punch somebody who had the vision for a better Britain and actually looked

Enthusiastic and hopeful about it and I think that is what we need more of in our politics Peter Carl thanks very much

Rishi Sunak has poured a bucket of cold water over speculation he could call a May General Election – claiming instead that his ‘working assumption’ is a vote in the second half of this year.
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That left his opponents distinctly unimpressed – as Sir Keir Starmer made his own pitch to voters in Bristol – our senior Political correspondent Paul McNamara reports.
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