LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s finding it hard to make good on the five big promises he made to British voters — but that won’t stop him from making a whole lot more.
British Chancellor Jeremy Hunt told the center-right Onward think tank Tuesday that, not only does his boss Sunak still think he’ll achieve his five pledges, but that “the next five” could well be on the way.
“I have enormous confidence not just that we will meet his five pledges, but in meeting them we will restore the trust of the British people that we lost last year,” Hunt said Tuesday.
“And then we will be able to make another set of pledges going into the election. And we’ll be able to say to them ‘you can listen to us — because we delivered the last five, and here are the next five, and we’re a party that delivers.’”
Sunak took over as British prime minister late last year following the short and tumultuous tenure of fellow Tory Liz Truss.
In a bid to turn things around in the wake of a Conservative polling collapse, Sunak kicked off 2023 with his five promises, which include: halving inflation this year; growing the economy; reducing national debt; cutting health service waiting lists; and passing laws to “stop small boats” crossing the English Channel.
But Sunak is already facing an uphill struggle to deliver. Inflation remains stubbornly high at 8.7 percent; monthly GDP growth sits at just 0.2 percent; and Sunak’s flagship migration policy has been snarled in parliament and the courts.
The prime minister is not the only British political leader to try packaging his pledges up in a group of five. Opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer has been touring the country promising to embark on five “national missions” if he wins power. Former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair swept to power in 1997 on a similar plan.
