Rishi Sunak has said the next five years will be “some of the most dangerous… our country has ever known” – but refused to set a date for a general election.

The prime minister said voters would face a choice between “the future and the past” at the general election and insisted he was “confident” the Tories could defeat Labour.

“It is only us, it is only me, that has the bold ideas and the clear plan that will deliver a secure future for the country,” he told Sky News following a speech in London.

But he refused to say when he would call an election, instead saying it would be “at some point in the second half of this year”.

Politics latest: Rwanda deportation law disapplied by court in Northern Ireland

In a wide-ranging speech that appeared to be a soft launch of his election campaign, Mr Sunak sought to position himself as the best option to navigate a dangerous period, adding that the war in Ukraine “has taken us closer to a dangerous nuclear escalation than at any point since the Cuban missile crisis”.

The PM claimed Sir Keir Starmer could not keep the country safe because he once supported Jeremy Corbyn to be Labour leader and Sir Keir had not committed to increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP.

Mr Sunak said he remained “confident” his party could win the general election despite polls continuing to suggest the Tories are on course to lose.

He admitted “we haven’t got everything right” over the past 14 years his party has been in power but said Labour “have almost nothing to say” about what they would do on most issues.

“No plans for our border, no plans for our energy security, no plans for our economy either,” he said.

Mr Sunak said Sir Keir had “no principles either” and had gone from “embracing Jeremy Corbyn to Natalie Elphicke” – the Tory MP who defected to Labour – “all in the cynical pursuit of power. At any price”.

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He claimed Labour “have no ideas” and act “like a pressure group, not of would-be government”.

Asked if he believed the country would be less safe under a Starmer leadership, and if this was the beginning of an argument that says “be careful what you wish for. Better the devil you know”, Mr Sunak replied: “In a word, yes.”

The PM said he could be relied on to make difficult decisions on the economy and defence, and he would make the UK a world leader in AI and technological advances.

Focusing on defence and technology, he said: “I feel a profound sense of urgency because more will change in the next five years than in the last 30.

“I’m convinced that the next few years will be some of the most dangerous, yet the most transformational, that our country has ever known.”

Mr Sunak said the UK needs to be “prepared strategically, economically, with robust plans and greater national resilience”.

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Sir Keir Starmer hit out at Mr Sunak’s accusations the UK would be less safe under Labour.

“We would not be less safe under a Labour government,” he said.

“A Labour government has always understood, and I understand very well, having worked on national security, in my previous role when I was Director of Public Prosecutions, I know first hand the importance of national security, which is why I’ve made such a commitment to the national security of our country.

“But in order to make that happen, you need a credible plan for the future.

“This government talks about national security. But what’s its record?

“It’s hollowed out our armed forces. It’s wasted billions of pounds on procurement and doesn’t have a credible plan for the future.

“We are much more serious than that. And that is because we’re a changed Labour Party that puts our country first and our participants.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said Mr Sunak should call a general election.

He said: “Families are sick of the Conservatives failing our NHS, allowing water companies to pump their sewage into our rivers and refusing to help families through the cost of living crisis.

“This Conservative government is out of touch and out of time and Rishi Sunak must do the right thing and give the people a general election.”

Rishi Sunak has said the government will appeal against a court ruling that provisions of the UK’s Illegal Migration Act – which created powers to send asylum seekers to Rwanda – should be disapplied in Northern Ireland.

The High Court in Belfast on Monday morning ordered the “disapplication” of sections of the act as they undermine human rights protections guaranteed in the region under post-Brexit arrangements.

The Illegal Migration Act provides new powers for the government to detain and remove asylum seekers it deems to have arrived illegally in the UK. Central to the new laws is the scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Mr Justice Humphreys said aspects of the Illegal Migration Act were also incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which the UK remains signed up to.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government would appeal against the ruling and the judgment “changes nothing about our operational plans to send illegal migrants to Rwanda this July or the lawfulness of our Safety of Rwanda Act”.

Following Brexit, the UK and the EU agreed the Windsor Framework, which stipulates there can be no diminution of the rights provisions contained within the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998, even if they differ from the rest of the UK.

The judge found several elements of the Illegal Immigration Act cause a “significant” reduction of the rights enjoyed by asylum seekers in Northern Ireland under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

“I have found that there is a relevant diminution of right in each of the areas relied upon by the applicants,” he said.

He added: “The applicants’ primary submission therefore succeeds. Each of the statutory provisions under consideration infringes the protection afforded to RSE (Rights, Safeguards and Equality of Opportunity) in the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.”

The judge ruled that the sections of the Act that were the subject of the legal challenges should be “disapplied” in Northern Ireland.

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The ruling will fuel a row between Ireland and the UK in recent weeks following the Dublin government introducing plans to return asylum seekers to the UK who cross the border from Northern Ireland into the Republic.

The plans were introduced after the Safety of Rwanda Bill became law at the end of April. The law declares the African nation a safe place to deport asylum seekers to.

Irish justice minister Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee more than 80% of recent arrivals in Ireland came via the land border with Northern Ireland.

Moday’s cases were brought to Belfast’s High Court by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and a 16-year-old asylum seeker from Iran who arrived in the UK as an unaccompanied child on a small boat from France last summer.

He is currently living in Northern Ireland where his application has not yet been determined but said he would be killed or sent to prison if returned to Iran.

Mr Justice Humphreys agreed to place a temporary stay on the disapplication ruling until another hearing at the end of May, when the applicants will be able to respond to the judgment.

Lawyer Sinead Marmion, who represented the teenager, said the judgment was “hugely significant”.

She said it would prevent the Rwanda scheme applying in Northern Ireland.

“This is a huge thorn in the government’s side and it has completely put a spanner in the works,” she said.

The prime minister said: “This judgment changes nothing about our operational plans to send illegal migrants to Rwanda this July or the lawfulness of our Safety of Rwanda Act.

“I have been consistently clear that the commitments in the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement should be interpreted as they were always intended, and not expanded to cover issues like illegal migration.

“We will take all steps to defend that position, including through appeal.”

Gavin Robinson, leader of Northern Ireland’s DUP, called on the government to prevent a fracture in immigration policy between the UK’s nations.

He said if nations have different policies it would make Northern Ireland a “magnet for asylum seekers seeking to escape enforcement”.

A health minister has apologised after a new report concluded that poor care in maternity services is “frequently tolerated as normal”.

The parliamentary inquiry found there was “shockingly poor quality” in maternity services, which resulted in care that lacked compassion and a system where “poor care is all too frequently tolerated as normal”.

Led by Conservative MP Theo Clarke and Labour MP Rosie Duffield, the Birth Trauma Inquiry considered evidence given by more than 1,300 women and has called for a national plan to improve maternity care.

It found that poor quality postnatal care was an “almost-universal theme”.

“Women shared stories of being left in blood-stained sheets or of ringing the bell for help but no one coming,” the report said.

It has made 12 recommendations, including that the government implement a maternity commissioner who would report directly to the prime minister.

A long-lasting problem

Health minister Maria Caulfield told Sky News maternity services had not been where they should be and apologised to mothers who had been affected.

“I recognise that maternity services have not been where we want them to be, but there is lots of work happening in this space,” Ms Caulfield said.

“This has been a problem for a long time, and it is why maternity is a priority area in the women’s health strategy.”

She said the inquiry aims to get expectant mothers better care during their pregnancy, rather than wait until they are just about to give birth.

Some £1.1bn – more than a third of the NHS’ total maternity and neonatal budget – was spent on cash payments relating to clinical negligence in 2022/23, a Department of Health and Social Care report showed.

Recommendations put forward by the Birth Trauma Inquiry include retraining and recruiting more midwives, offering a separate six-week check post-delivery with a GP for all mothers, provide support for fathers or nominated birth partners and better educate women on birth choices.

It also recommends extending the time limit for medical negligence litigation relating to childbirth from three years
to five years.

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Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said she was “determined to improve the quality and consistency of care for women throughout pregnancy, birth and the critical months that follow”.

Wes Streeting, shadow health secretary, called the report “groundbreaking” and said the Labour Party would work in the same bipartisan spirit to deliver results.

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‘A lot more work to be done’

After her own experience of a traumatic birth, Sandra Igwe set up The Motherhood Group and has spent the past eight years campaigning. When she gave birth earlier this year for the third time, she expected the outcome would be different.

“Sadly, the third time around, again, my concerns were dismissed and I was made to wait several days to give birth after being induced, and that added to my anxiety,” she told Sky News correspondent Shamaan Freeman-Powell.

“It has shown me there is a lot more work to be done.”

She is now working with Councillor Evelyn Akoto, cabinet member for health and wellbeing at Southwark Council, to get the experiences of women from diverse backgrounds in a maternity commission.

Cllr Akoto, who also had her own experience of being dismissed and ignored during labour, said the statistics black and ethnic minority women face are “horrifying”.

“I see myself and other black women as walking statistics,” she said. “I see our lives in danger all the time.”

The councillor said that in order for the quality of care to be improved across maternity services, inequalities need to be addressed.

“If we get it right for those who are being negatively impacted, we get it right for everyone,” she added. “So it’s important we all come together and resolve this.”