Current:Home > FinanceWith 2024 being a UK election year, the opposition wants an early vote. PM Rishi Sunak is in no rush -StockHorizon
With 2024 being a UK election year, the opposition wants an early vote. PM Rishi Sunak is in no rush
View
Date:2025-04-16 07:29:09
LONDON (AP) — The politician favored to become Britain’s next prime minister accused the governing Conservatives on Thursday of leading the country into decline and despair during their 14 years in power, and urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to “bring it on” and hold an early election.
Sunak, whose party is trailing in opinion polls, resisted pressure for an early vote, saying he planned to wait until “the second half of this year.”
Kicking off a year likely to be dominated by electioneering, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer urged voters to reject a “tide of cynicism” about politicians. He said a Labour government would deliver “Project Hope,” though he ruled out major tax cuts or spending rises soon after an election.
Starmer is aiming to return his left-of-center party, out of office since 2010, back to power in an election that must be held by January 2025.
Opinion polls consistently give Labour a double-digit lead over Sunak’s Conservatives, who have churned through three prime ministers in 18 months amid a stuttering economy and a drumbeat of ethics scandals. But Starmer is trying to warn his party against complacency and to rouse disillusioned voters from apathy.
“Everyone agrees we’re in a huge mess,” Starmer said during a speech in the southwest England city of Bristol. “Services on their knees, an economy that doesn’t work for working people even when it grows, let alone now when it stagnates.”
He said that while most agreed “that Britain needs change … trust in politics is now so low, so degraded, that nobody believes you can make a difference anymore.”
“Don’t listen when they say we’re all the same. We’re not and we never will be,” he added, saying voters had a choice between “continued decline with the Tories or national renewal with Labour.”
With inflation still high and the economy showing close to zero growth, Labour is being cautious about making financial promises. Starmer said Labour would aim to lower taxes, but that getting the economy growing was the top priority.
“The first lever that we want to pull, the first place we will go, is growth in our economy because that’s what’s been missing for 14 years,” he said.
Starmer also said Labour’s promise to invest 28 billion pounds ($36 billion) a year until 2030 in green projects would depend on the state of the public finances.
Starmer has wrestled Labour back to the political center ground after taking over in 2020 from left-winger Jeremy Corbyn, who led the party to defeats in 2017 and 2019. He has dropped Corbyn’s opposition to Britain’s nuclear weapons, backed military aid to Ukraine, apologized for antisemitism within the party under Corbyn and stressed the party’s commitment to balancing the books.
The 61-year-old politician embraced a resume that opponents have used against him: a onetime human rights lawyer and former head of the national prosecution service. He said those roles meant he understood “the responsibility of justice and public service and … the responsibility of serious government.”
He urged Sunak to fire the starting gun on an election campaign. Senior Labour officials have talked up the prospect of a May election — in part to put pressure on the prime minister.
But Sunak, who became prime minister through an internal Conservative leadership contest in October 2022, indicated he is in no rush to seek voters’ judgment. He has the power to call an election whenever he wants ahead of the deadline.
He said his “working assumption” was that the vote would be held in the second half of 2024.
“I want to keep going, managing the economy well and cutting people’s taxes. But I also want to keep tackling illegal migration,” Sunak told reporters. “So, I’ve got lots to get on with and I’m determined to keep delivering for the British people.”
veryGood! (4)
Related
- Tree trimmer dead after getting caught in wood chipper at Florida town hall
- Inside Christian McCaffrey’s Winning Formula: Motivation, Focus & Recovery
- Cleansing Balms & Oils To Remove Summer Makeup, From Sunscreen to Waterproof Mascara
- Taylor Swift Reveals She's the Godmother of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds' Kids
- McKinsey to pay $650 million after advising opioid maker on how to 'turbocharge' sales
- Prisoners fight against working in heat on former slave plantation, raising hope for change in South
- Kamala Harris: A Baptist with a Jewish husband and a faith that traces back to MLK and Gandhi
- Billy Ray Cyrus says he was at his 'wit's end' amid leaked audio berating Firerose, Tish
- The FTC says 'gamified' online job scams by WhatsApp and text on the rise. What to know.
- Senate committee votes to investigate Steward Health Care bankruptcy and subpoena its CEO
Ranking
- In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
- In Northeast Ohio, Hello to Solar and Storage; Goodbye to Coal
- Pregnant Lea Michele Reveals How She’s Preparing for Baby No. 2
- Transit and environmental advocates sue NY governor over decision to halt Manhattan congestion toll
- Rams vs. 49ers highlights: LA wins rainy defensive struggle in key divisional game
- Why U.S. men's gymnastics team has best shot at an Olympic medal in more than a decade
- Recalled Diamond Shruumz edibles now linked to two possible deaths and cases in 28 states
- Pregnant Lala Kent Poses Completely Nude to Show Off Baby Bump
Recommendation
Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
Biden signs bill strengthening oversight of crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons
Ronda Rousey Is Pregnant, Expecting Another Baby With Husband Travis Browne
Utah Supreme Court overturns death sentence for man convicted of murder
Kylie Jenner Shows Off Sweet Notes From Nieces Dream Kardashian & Chicago West
Why Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman hope 'Deadpool & Wolverine' is a 'fastball of joy'
Multiple crew failures and wind shear led to January crash of B-1 bomber, Air Force says
Locked out of town hall, 1st Black mayor of a small Alabama town returns to office