Rishi Sunak makes pre-election speech after local vote losses – BBC News

Keir Starmer remarks to reporters by saying that it’s been “really good” to get Labour mayors together in the West Midlands to draw up plans for growth.

He says Rishi Sunak’s government keeps saying that everything is fine – but “everybody knows it isn’t”.

Labour is “laser-focused” on living standards in every part of the country, Starmer says.

He then goes on to acknowledge how many voters put their confidence in Labour mayors and he wants to repay their trust.

Labour won 10 of the 11 elected mayoralties up for grabs in the local elections this month.

With Rishi Sunak’s speech now over, we’re moving our focus north of the capital, with the opposition leader due to give further details on Labour’s vision for the future.

As our political editor Chris Mason said earlier, there’s a real pre-election feel to things today.

Sir Keir Starmer will speak after holding roundtable talks in Wolverhampton with Labour mayors about improving regional growth if the party wins power.

His choosing of today’s location for unveiling this manifesto will underscore an important point for the Labour leader, as it’s where his party recently grabbed the West Midlands mayoralty in a close win in the local elections.

BBC Verify

Gerry Georgieva

During his speech, Rishi Sunak said that “Brexit Britain has leapt above France, Japan and the Netherlands to become the world’s fourth biggest exporter”.

While he is right to say the UK ranks fourth in terms of export value – after China, the US, and Germany – it is not a recent achievement.

The UK also ranked fourth in 2015, but was overtaken by Japan in 2016 – the same year as the Brexit vote. It climbed back into fourth spot in 2019 and has remained in that position since.

Technically the UK has never “leapt above” the Netherlands, as it has always exported less than us.

The UK also ranked fourth during Tony Blair’s Labour premiership, before China’s rapid growth in 2004. Since then the UK has been playing catch-up with Japan, with both countries swapping positions every few years.

During his speech, the prime minister said: “In the first quarter of this year, we grew faster than France, Germany, Japan, Italy and even America”.

In the first three months of 2024, the economy grew by 0.6%, which was indeed faster than France, Germany, Italy and the US. Japan’s figures aren’t coming out until Thursday.

But that relatively strong quarter followed a year of almost no growth.

And if you compare the growth in the first quarter of this year with the same period last year, the UK grew more slowly than France, Italy and the US, although faster than Germany.

We’ve just heard from Rishi Sunak, who gave voters a choice between the Conservatives’ “optimistic” view of the future and Labour’s “doomsterism” ahead of the general election.

In case you missed it, here are the key lines from his 30-minute speech:

• The next few years are going to be both “dangerous” and “transformational” for the UK, the prime minister warned multiple times while rolling out sample pillars of his election manifesto
• National security and the threat posed by ongoing wars and cyber attacks from abroad are chief concerns for Sunak’s government going forward, he said
• New technologies, such as AI, can be dangerous, the PM conceded, adding that these innovations also offer new opportunities to keep Britain’s economy growing
• He said delivering on cutting taxes, investing in key industries and the triple-lock system as evidence that he can be trusted with recovering the economy
• Sunak rarely missed a chance to hit out at Labour leader Keir Starmer, who he repeatedly accused of not standing for anything
• Ultimately, Sunak said Britain stand at a crossroads and only he can be trusted to have the “bold ideas” to deliver a secure future

The dividing lines are sharpening.

Rishi Sunak is often super cautious in his public utterances.

He is usually wary of blunt questions from reporters like me who seek direct answers to direct questions.

And usually, to be frank, the answer isn’t direct or even remotely close to it.

Today, it was very different.

We must be only a few months from polling day!

I invited him to be explicit in what had so far been implicit.

Does he think the country would be less safe under Keir Starmer?

Yes, he said.

Sunak is asked by Channel 4 about whether the West will force Ukraine to accept a peace deal with Russia.

Sunak says he can say “clearly” that that the UK has “led when it comes to Ukraine,” including in providing “new capabilities” that he is proud of. Investment in Ukraine’s security is an investment in our security, he adds.

And with that, Sunak’s news conference ends. Stay with us here for analysis and a recap key lines from his speech.

Sky News confronts the prime minister with his previous suggestion that the UK is heading for a hung parliament at the next general election.

Beth Rigby asks: “Why have you openly admitted that you’re not going to stay on as prime minister?”

Sunak deflects and says that it wasn’t him who said those things, but rather an independent analysis of the results from the recent local elections.

He then repeats that the general election will be a choice between the future and the past.

The next question put to Sunak asks whether former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be a part of the party’s election campaign.

“I want every Conservative who shares the vision that I do to be part of that campaign, Sunak replies.

He adds that the Conservative party is “a broad church”.

Sunak says the election campaign is not Tory against Tory. He says the choice is between him and Keir Starmer as well as the future versus the past.

BBC Political Editor Chris Mason asks the prime minister if he believes the country would be less safe under a Starmer leadership – and if this is the beginning of an election argument that says: “Be careful what you wish for. Better the devil you know”.

“In a word, yes,” Sunak replies, to laughter.

The PM again turns again to the theme of his speech, saying he believes the next few years will be the “most dangerous” for the country in a long time – and also the most transformative.

Robert Peston of ITV pointedly asks Rishi Sunak: “Why on Earth shouldn’t voters look at the recent past as a guide to the future under a Tory government?”

Sunak answers by setting what he says is the context of his tenure. The global shocks of the pandemic and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East didn’t just happen to the UK, he says.

The world is becoming a more dangerous place, he adds, before saying to voters that the question they should be asking themselves is about who they can trust to have the bold ideas to deliver a secure future.

His track record over the last 18 months – including tax cuts and investing in key industries – shows that he believes he is the answer, he tells Peston.

Ben Riley-Smith of the Daily Telegraph asks the PM if he will rule out calling a general election in July.

Sunak repeats his line that his “working assumption” is that the election will be in the second half of the year.

He says when the election campaign comes, he’ll be happy to debate Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer “as many times as he would like”.

Sunak is taking questions from the media.

The first question is about security and defence spending being lower now than when the Conservatives took power.

Sunak says the country was in a poor financial state when the Tories came in to power 14 years ago. He says they had managed to maintain defence spending at 2% of GDP for a decade.

He says that Labour have not been able to make the same commitments on future spending as he has.

Sunak says he refuses to accept the “doomsterism and cynical narrative of decline” that Labour hope will “depress people” into voting for them.

He pledges to help people fulfil their ambitions and to build the world-class education system that gives children the skills they need to succeed, “no matter where they started in life”.

And with that he ends his speech, opening the floor to questions from the press.

Sunak is returning again to the topic of new technologies, and how his government would like to see the “fearful” word that all families dread hearing – “cancer” – disappear.

We know we can prevent most lung cancers by stopping smoking, Sunak says, before redirecting attention to the fact that his government remains committed to creating a “smoke-free generation”.

He highlights that the UK is responsible for training top experts, from doctors to top biotech businesses.

He cites the UK’s post-Brexit successes in trialling new drugs as being just one example of potential generational breakthroughs to come.

“Today I’ve set out my vision of how Britain can be success in one of the most dangerous but also transformational eras,” he adds.

Moving on to education, Sunak says his plan is to build a system that is “truly world-class”.

He says that there will be a “tearing down of barriers” between technological and academic advancement.

He says, “unapologetically” that every single child should leave school literate and numerate and that maths is essential.

Sunak says he will end “rip-off” degrees and expand apprenticeships.

He adds that there will be funding for people to retrain at every stage of their life, saying: “Education won’t stop when you walk of out of the school gates.”

Sunak says he rejects the “ideological zeal” of those who want the UK to adopt policies that go further and faster on net zero than any other country – “no matter what the cost of disruption” to people’s lives.

He says Labour “act like a pressure group,” not a “would-be government”.

He adds that the Conservatives would lead the country to net zero in a “serious” and “hard-headed” way, prioritising energy and financial security.

Referring to the state of the economy, Sunak says his government is in a position to protect the UK from the danger of a more unstable world by “giving you financial security”.

He discusses steps his government has taken to help “people struggling to make ends meet,” referring to policies he’s brought forward to help people with rising energy bills and mortgage costs.

“I hope I’ve shown that the government I lead will always be there for you,” he says.

Sunak turns now to the government’s immigration plans, saying the global displacement of millions of people is a new challenge of our age.

He says the UK “can and will protect” against illegal migration, adding that this is why the Conservatives are “pioneering” the Rwanda scheme.

The scheme will be a deterrent and save thousands of lives, he says.

He says there may be “flashpoints” ahead with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), to which the UK is a party.

Sunak asks if Labour’s strategy is to “depress their way to victory,” adding that it won’t work as the UK is “a nation of optimists”.

He says keeping the country safe is his highest priority.

Sunak says he has presented plans to increase spending on national security. Labour refuses to match the pledge, he says.

He also says that Labour voted against a nuclear deterrent, adding: “Either you believe the world is more dangerous or you don’t.”