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Rishi Sunak’s New Year speech: reassuring or rattling?

5 January 2023246 views0

Rishi Sunak delivered his keynote New Year’s speech Wednesday, outlining the government’s key priorities for the coming year.

Dubbed the five-point plan, the PM emphasised the following reassurances which he believes are the public’s top concerns:

Halve inflation
Grow the economy
Reduce debt
Cut waiting lists (in the NHS)
Stop the boats

He concluded, “I guarantee that your priorities will be my priorities. I pledge that I will be honest about the challenges we face. And I will take the tough but necessary decisions to ensure our great country achieves its enormous potential. I will only promise what I can deliver. And I will deliver what I promise.”

A full transcript of his speech can be read here.

Over the past few weeks, concerns have grown around the NHS as patients have been left waiting for over 12 hours at A&E across the country, ambulance waiting times have soared, public sector strikes are set continue, and the cost of living crisis has strained families over the winter.

Regarding education and the future of young people in the workplace, he highlighted the importance of “more technical education, lifelong learning, and apprenticeships”, as well as “making numeracy a central objective of the education system” by working with schools to “move towards all children studying some form of maths to 18”.

He went on to emphasise that “Improving education is the closest thing to a silver bullet there is. It is the best economic policy, the best social policy, the best moral policy.”

Right-wing media mostly rallied behind his speech which they deemed reassuring, – though the Telegraph seems to be rapidly losing favour. Left-wing media largely considered it inadequate in addressing the true concerns of the public.

All headlines are print front-page articles for Thursday January 5 2023, unless otherwise linked to the corresponding online article.