Under-pressure Prime Minister Rishi Sunak today tried to reboot his stalling premiership with a promise to cut inflation, reduce NHS waiting lists and halt small boat crossings in the Channel.
Mr Sunak has struggled to make much of an impact since becoming Prime Minister in late October. His party is miles behind Labour in the polls and he has been accused of going into hiding over the festive period with the health service in a state of total crisis.
Speaking in Stratford today, the Prime Minister laid out his priorities for the year ahead and asked the public to judge him on his five pledges for 2023.
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He promised to halve inflation, to grow the economy, to reduce debt, to cut hospital waiting lists and to stop migrant crossings. Mr Sunak promised to work "night and day" to deliver on those challenges during this parliament and to create "a future that restores optimism, hope and pride in Britain".
The Prime Minister said: "So, five promises - we will: Halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists, and stop the boats. Those are the people's priorities. They are your government's priorities. And we will either have achieved them or not.
"No tricks, no ambiguity, we're either delivering for you or we're not. We will rebuild trust in politics through action, or not at all. So, I ask you to judge us on the effort we put in and the results we achieve."
But already his promises are being criticised as vague and impossible to judge. Others said he has no plan for the crisis in the health service.
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: "Disgraceful that Rishi Sunak still has no plan to fix the crisis raging in the NHS. Patients are being treated in hospital corridors, but this Conservative government either doesn’t understand or doesn’t care."
On inflation, numerous commentators pointed out that while Mr Sunak 'promised to halve inflation - The Bank of England have already forecast that inflation should actually halve in the next year.
Jon Sopel, co-host of the News Agents podcast was also unimpressed with the PM's promises. He said: "Hang on. Rishi Sunak says unambiguous about 5 objectives, but some of these things are so complex, he acknowledges, can’t set a timescale when they’ll be achieved by. So hold us to account - err - at some undetermined point in the future, over a couple of horizons."
In its own response, the Labour Party said: "Rishi Sunak’s five promises are all things that were happening anyway; are so easy it would be difficult not to achieve them; or are aimed at fixing problems of the Tories’ own making.
"The do-nothing Prime Minister is too weak to stand up to his party or vested interests. That means that from housing and planning laws to closing tax avoidance loopholes, he can’t take the big decisions to put the country first. For weeks this speech was hyped up as his big vision – now he’s delivered it, the country is entitled to ask: is that it?"
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