Rishi Sunak is failing at his five priorities, say most Britons in new poll

Published

2 years ago

June 5, 2023

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The majority of the British public thinks Rishi Sunak is doing a bad job in delivering on his five priorities, a new poll has found.

Almost half a year after the prime minister set out his five key aims – including halving inflation, growing the economy, cutting NHS waiting lists, reducing the national debt and stopping small boat crossings – an Ipsos UK survey found more than 50% of people think the government is doing a bad job on almost all of them.

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In a further blow for Downing Street, the poll found the public tended to think Mr Sunak was doing a worse job on the areas that were most important to them.

According to the poll, the public’s top priority was easing the cost of living (with 59% listing it as important), followed by ensuring people can get NHS treatment more quickly (54%) and reducing NHS waiting lists (51%).

But 60% said the government was doing a bad job on easing the cost of living, with only 18% saying it was doing a good job and 62% thought it was not delivering on reducing NHS wait times.

On growing the economy, which 39% listed as one of their priorities, 50% said the government was doing a bad job.

Stopping small boats and ensuring illegal immigrants were swiftly deported was a lower priority for the public, with 29% mentioning it, but it was a much higher priority for people who voted Conservative in 2019 than those who voted Labour.

Almost half of Tory voters listed ensuring the swift removal of illegal immigrants as an important priority – the same number as those who mentioned reducing NHS waiting lists and more than those who listed growing the economy, while only 14% of Labour voters said the same.

Only 15% said they thought reducing the national debt was important.

Public think Labour would do a better job

The public was more likely to think a Labour government would do a better job than the Tories on each of Mr Sunak’s priorities.

Between a quarter and a third of people thought Sir Keir Starmer‘s party would do a good job on halving inflation, cutting NHS waiting lists and reducing the national debt. Some 21% said Labour would do a good job on stopping small boat crossings.

But less than 20% thought the same about the government in all of those areas except growing the economy.

Some 22% thought the government was doing a good job on that priority, though this was still lower than Labour’s score of 29%.

Labour government considered better outcome at next election

The poll was carried out between 26 and 30 May and surveyed 2,200 British adults about the government’s priorities and their thoughts on the outcome of the next general election.

It found the public was more likely to prefer options that involved a Labour government than a Conservative one, with 39% saying a Labour majority would be a great outcome and 31% saying the same about a coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Only 27% said a Tory majority would be a good outcome, with 17% backing a Conservative-Lib Dem coalition.

The only Labour option to score less than a Conservative majority was a Labour minority reliant on support from the SNP, which 22% said would be a good outcome.

World

Israeli air strike hits Gaza hospital

Published

7 hours ago

April 13, 2025

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An Israeli air strike has hit a hospital in Gaza City, with pictures showing the devastating aftermath at some of its wards.

The al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital was hit by multiple missiles, the Hamas-run health ministry said, adding hundreds of patients, medical personnel, and their companions were on site at the time of the attack.

It said the Israeli army had targeted what it described as “one of the oldest and most vital healthcare institutions operating in the Gaza Strip”.

One patient died during the evacuation as medical staff were unable to provide urgent care, it said.

No other casualties have been reported.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said they “struck a command and control centre used by Hamas” in the hospital.

“The compound was used by Hamas terrorists to plan and execute terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” they said in a statemement.

“Prior to the strike, steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians or to the hospital compound, including issuing advanced warnings in the area of the terror infrastructure, the use of precise munitions, and aerial surveillance.

“The Hamas terrorist organisation systematically violates international law while using civilian infrastructure, brutally exploiting the civilian population as a human shield for its terrorist activities.”

The health facility’s director, Dr Fadel Naim, said they were warned of the attack beforehand.

Hamas has denied using hospitals for military purposes throughout the war and has accused Israel of intentionally targeting its medical infrastructure in its ongoing offensive.

The latest strikes come after Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas and restarted its air and ground offensive.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has also imposed a month-long blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid – a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime.

Israel reconstructs Morag corridor

On Saturday, Israel said it had completed the construction of a new security corridor that cuts off the southern city of Rafah from the rest of Gaza.

The security corridor was referred to by Israeli officials as the Morag Axis, a reference to a former Israeli settlement previously located in an area between the two southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.

The prime minister said the move gives Israel control of a second axis in southern Gaza in addition to the Philadelphi Corridor, running along the border with Egypt, which Israel sees as a key line stopping weapons being smuggled into Gaza.

Israel has also gained control of the Netzarim Corridor, which cuts off the northern third of Gaza from the rest of the territory.

Morag’s construction is part of Israel’s pledge to seize large parts of Gaza to pressure Hamas to release remaining hostages and accept proposed ceasefire terms, and it further squeezes Palestinians into shrinking areas of land.

In a statement on Saturday, Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said his country’s military would soon expand “rapidly” throughout most of Gaza and that Palestinians would “have to evacuate the fighting zones”.

He did not say where Palestinians were supposed to go.

The war between Israel and Hamas began when Hamas-led militants invaded Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.

Some 59 hostages are still being held in Gaza, with 24 still believed to be alive.

The ensuing Israeli offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but has previously said more than half of those killed in the conflict are women and children.

World

Iran says ‘indirect talks’ have taken place with US over nuclear programme – with more to follow

Published

1 day ago

April 12, 2025

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Iran says 'indirect talks' have taken place with US over nuclear programme - with more to follow

Iran says “indirect talks” over the country’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme have taken place with US officials, with more to come next week.

The discussions on Saturday took place in Muscat, Oman, with the host nation’s officials mediating between representatives of Iran and the US, who were seated in separate rooms, according to Esmail Baghaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry.

After the talks concluded, Oman and Iranian officials reported that Iran and the US had had agreed to hold more negotiations next week.

Oman’s foreign minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi tweeted after the meeting, thanking Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff for joining the negotiations aimed at “global peace, security and stability”.

“We will continue to work together and put further efforts to assist in arriving at this goal,” he added.

Iranian state media claimed the US and Iranian officials “briefly spoke in the presence of the Omani foreign minister” at the end of the talks – a claim Mr Araghchi echoed in a statement on Telegram.

He added the talks took place in a “constructive atmosphere based on mutual respect” and that they would continue next week.

American officials did not immediately acknowledge the reports from Iran.

Mr Araghchi said before the meeting on Saturday there was a “chance for initial understanding on further negotiations if the other party [US] enters the talks with an equal stance”.

He told Iran’s state TV: “Our intention is to reach a fair and honourable agreement – from an equal footing.

“And if the other side has also entered from the same position, God willing, there will be a chance for an initial agreement that can lead to a path of negotiations.”

Reuters news agency said an Omani source told it the talks were focused on de-escalating regional tensions, prisoner exchanges and limited agreements to ease sanctions in exchange for controlling Iran’s nuclear programme.

President Donald Trump has insisted Tehran cannot get nuclear weapons.

He said on Monday that the talks would be direct, but Tehran officials insisted it would be conducted through an intermediary.

Mr Trump also warned Iran would be in “great danger” if negotiations fail.

“Hopefully those talks will be successful, it would be in Iran’s best interests if they are successful,” he said. “We hope that’s going to happen.”

He added Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon, and if the talks aren’t successful, I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran”.

The comments came after Mr Trump’s previous warnings of possible military action against Iran if there is no deal over its nuclear programme.

Saturday’s meeting marked the first between the countries since Mr Trump’s second term in the White House began.

During his first term, he withdrew the US from a deal between Iran and world powers designed to curb Iran’s nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief.

He also reimposed US sanctions.

Iran has since far surpassed that deal’s limits on uranium enrichment.

Tehran insists its nuclear programme is wholly for civilian energy purposes but Western powers accuse it of having a clandestine agenda.

Mr Witkoff came from talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday, as the US tries to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.

World

President Duda says Trump best chance for Ukraine peace – and urges allies to stay calm over tariffs ‘shock therapy’

Published

1 day ago

April 12, 2025

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President Duda says Trump best chance for Ukraine peace - and urges allies to stay calm over tariffs 'shock therapy'

Poland’s outgoing President Andrzej Duda has kept few revelations for the final weeks of his presidency.

Ten years in office – a tenure spanning Donald Trump’s first and current term – his admiration for the incumbent leader of the free world remains undimmed. As is his conviction that Ukraine’s only chance of peace lies with the US leader.

In an interview with Sky News in the presidential palace in Warsaw, President Duda described Mr Trump‘s tariff policy as “shock therapy”, a negotiating tactic from a man “of huge business and commercial success” that he now brings to the arena of politics.

That may not be what European politicians are used to, Mr Duda says, but Donald Trump is answerable to the US taxpayer and not to his European counterparts, and allies must “stay calm” in the face of this new transatlantic modus operandi.

As for negotiations with Vladimir Putin, President Duda is sure that Donald Trump has the measure of the Russian leader, while refusing to be drawn on the competencies of his chief negotiator Steve Witkoff who landed on Friday in Moscow for further talks with Vladimir Putin – a man Mr Witkoff has described as “trustworthy” and “not a bad guy”.

Putting the kybosh on Nord Stream 2 in his first term and thwarting President Putin’s energy ambitions via his state-owned energy giant Gazprom are evidence enough that Mr Trump knows where to hit so it hurts, Mr Duda says.

Given the failures of Europe’s leaders to negotiate peace through the Minsk accords, he believes the onus now falls on Donald Trump.

“If anyone is able to force the end of Russia’s war, it is most likely only the President of the United States,” he says.

“The question is whether he will be determined enough to do that in a way – because it is also very important here in Europe being a neighbour of Russian aggression against Ukraine – that the peace is fair and lasting.”

President Duda has just weeks left in office before the country votes for a new president in May.

Originally from Poland’s conservative Law and Justice party, one of the few points of alignment with the liberal and euro-centric prime minister Donald Tusk is the emphasis both place on security.

Hopes for ‘Fort Trump’ base

So did the announcement this week that the US would be withdrawing from the Jasionka air base near Rzeszow, which is the key logistics hub for allied support into Ukraine, come as a shock to the president, as it did to many Poles?

Not at all, Mr Duda says.

“We were warned that the change was planned. I have not received any information from [the US] about decreasing the number of American soldiers. Quite the opposite.”

He referred back to talks with US defence secretary Pete Hegseth in February, saying: “We discussed strengthening the American presence in Poland, and I mentioned the idea of creating a huge base of US troops. Then, we called it Fort Trump. I do still hope that this idea will be implemented.”

Andrzej Duda has staked his legacy on close ties with Donald Trump at a time when many NATO allies are considering a form of de-Americanisation, as they consider new trading realities and build up their own defence capabilities.

Poland has proven itself a model in terms of defence spending, investing more than any other NATO member – a massive 4.7% of GDP for 2025. But as the case of Canada shows, even the best of friendships can turn sour.

The Canadian conservative party, once dubbed a maple MAGA, was flying high in the polls before Donald Trump decided to savage links with his closest trading partner.

Now in the space of just a few months they are floundering behind the ruling liberal party. Is this a cautionary tale for Poland’s conservative Law and Justice party?

“For Canadian conservatives it is a kind of side effect of President Trump’s very tough economic policy,” Mr Duda says.

“In Poland, this does not have such an impact. The security issues are the most important. That’s the most important issue in Poland.”