All of Rishi Sunak’s campaign pledges from summer leadership race under review

Published

2 years ago

November 3, 2022

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All of Rishi Sunak’s campaign pledges from the summer leadership contest are under review.

The prime minister’s official spokeswoman said that the pledges were made a few months ago, when the context was “somewhat different”.

Secretaries of state are to be consulted on the specifics of their departments.

Sunak ‘absolutely hammered’ on immigration at PMQs – live politics updates

There was no end point for the review, the spokeswoman said.

“We are looking at all the campaign pledges and we are looking at whether it is the right time to take them forward,” she said.

“We need to take some time to make sure what is deliverable and what is possible, and engaging with stakeholders and with the relevant secretaries of state as well.

“Obviously, those are pledges that were made a few months ago now and the context is somewhat different, obviously, economically.

“We need to look again.”

Mr Sunak has already dropped his plan to fine patients £10 for missing GP appointments.

Downing Street said the PM had listened to GPs and NHS leaders “and agreed now is not the time to take this policy forward”.

Among the critics, the British Medical Association (BMA) said the plans would “make matters worse” and threaten the principle of free NHS care at the point of need.

This morning, Transport Secretary Mark Harper also cast doubt on the high speed rail link connecting Manchester and Leeds, saying the government is looking at “all the options” ahead of expected spending cuts in the autumn statement later this month.

Key pledges made by Mr Sunak in the leadership contest include:

Cut the basic rate of income tax from 20p to 16p by the end of the next parliament
Scrap or reform all EU legislation by the next election
Continue the Rwanda deportation scheme, alongside a 10-point plan to tackle immigration
Block housing on the greenbelt
Rail improvements in the North, including HS2 trains up to Leeds
Commit to reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

The PM’s spokeswoman was also asked if Mr Sunak is committed to the 2019 manifesto pledge not to raise taxes, and said that, while the PM strives for a low tax economy, “a lot of things have happened” since then and “we are feeling effects”.

The admission from Downing Street is likely to fuel fresh calls for a general election, which opposition parties have been demanding since the collapse of Boris Johnson’s government in July.

Mr Sunak took on Liz Truss for the Tory leadership over the summer, but lost out to her in the race to succeed Mr Johnson after Tory party members favoured her tax-slashing plan for growth over his fiscally conservative policies.

However, the former chancellor saw a swift reversal in fortunes when Ms Truss resigned after just 44 days in the job.

He won the support of Tory MPs and became leader in a swift second leadership contest that didn’t go to the wider party membership.

He now faces the task of balancing the books following the fallout from his predecessor’s disastrous mini-budget.

The prime minister and his chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, are said to be eyeing up rough tax rises and spending cuts to fill a £40bn black hole in the nation’s coffers.

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Pictures show moment Israeli bomb exploded at Beirut apartment block

Published

4 hours ago

November 15, 2024

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Pictures show moment Israeli bomb exploded at Beirut apartment block

New pictures show the moment of impact as an Israeli missile hit a Beirut apartment block and exploded.

The block was one of five buildings destroyed by airstrikes on Friday alone.

Israel launched airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut in a fourth consecutive day of intense attacks.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

An Associated Press photographer captured a sequence of images showing an Israeli bomb approaching and hitting a multi-storey apartment building in Beirut’s Tayouneh area.

Richard Weir, a senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, reviewed the close-up photos to determine what type of weapon was used.

“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the strake, wire harness cover, and tail fin section, are consistent with a Mk-84 series 2,000-pound class general purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s joint directed attack munition tail kit,” he told AP.

Deadly strikes as bombardment stepped up

Israel stepped up its bombardment this week – an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy towards a ceasefire.

The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other Hezbollah infrastructure. It issued a warning on social media identifying buildings ahead of the strikes.

Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon’s state media said.

The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn’t provide their ages.

Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.

Video footage also showed a building being struck and turning into a cloud of rubble and debris that billowed into Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.

More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon during 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – most of them since mid-September.

About 27% of those killed were women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon from September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel.

Friday’s strikes come as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has asked Iran to help secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The prime minister appeared to urge Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.

Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.

On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, said that prospects for a ceasefire with Lebanon were the most promising since the conflict began.

The Washington Post reported Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire to deliver an early foreign policy win to his ally, US President-elect Donald Trump.

World

Elon Musk hints 80-hour-a-week DOGE job for ‘high-IQ revolutionaries’ will be unpaid

Published

9 hours ago

November 15, 2024

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Elon Musk hints 80-hour-a-week DOGE job for 'high-IQ revolutionaries' will be unpaid

“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.

The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.

The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.

“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.

“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.

“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”

In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.

“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.

“What a great deal!”

When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.

Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”

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At least 10 dead after fire rips through retirement home in Spain

Published

9 hours ago

November 15, 2024

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At least 10 dead after fire rips through retirement home in Spain

At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.

A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.

They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.

Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.