UK's poll ball starts rolling as cornered Sunak targets Labour over security

PRIME MINISTER Rishi Sunak on Monday (13) claimed in a wide-ranging speech that opposition leader Keir Starmer would make the UK less safe. His address previewed key issues that are likely to arise in the general election expected later this year.

The Conservative premier asserted that Labour would not uphold his pledges on defence, including his commitment to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of national income by 2030.

The Labour responded saying it would aim to meet the same target when conditions permit. Addressing the remarks, Starmer said that security would be his "first priority".

The opposition leader also accused the ruling party of "hollowing out" the armed forces and "wasting billions of pounds on procurement", a BBC report said. He also said that the voters at the next polls will face the choice of either Labour or a "government of chaos and division".

Read: Tory donor Puneet Gupta dumps party over ‘stagnant’ growth under Sunak

The government has revealed that to fulfill its 2.5 per cent defence spending pledge, it would reduce the size of the civil service.

Think tanks, such as the Royal United Services Institute and the Institute for Fiscal Studies, have opined that the raised spending would also lead to cuts to other departments, the BBC report added.

Currently trailing Labour in the polls, the Conservatives and Sunak, who took over as the fifth Tory prime minister since 2016, face a challenging task to reverse their fortunes before the next general election.

Read: Sunak has to offer a competitive election to avoid Tory wipeout

In his speech that lasted for half an hour, Sunak seemed to be firing the opening salvo in an election campaign and also made a personal attack on the Labour leader. The speech also came days after the Conservative Party witnessed a debacle in the recently held mayoral polls in London and central England, putting the ruling party under more stress ahead of the national polls.

Depicting the future as a period of both danger and transformation, Sunak cautioned against threats from an "axis of authoritarian powers" including Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China, and highlighted the challenges posed to cyber security.

He also remarked that there were reasons for optimism, citing the potential of artificial intelligence to improve key sectors such as education and health.

Admitting that the Conservatives' record was not "perfect" and that he could sense that some people felt their "confidence and pride" in the country had been "knocked", Sunak, Britain's first prime minister of Asian origin, said he understood it, accepted it and wanted to change it.

"What I cannot accept is Labour saying all the worries you have are because of 14 years of Conservative government, that all you need to do is change the people in office and all these problems will magically disappear," he said and accused the opposition party of trying to "depress their way to victory".

Sunak also tried to define himself as a man of conviction while he called Starmer as one who "trying to be everything to everyone".

The prime minister also said that in challenging circumstances -- including economic shocks and the COVID-19 pandemic -- the ruling party had delivered in areas such as restoring financial security, delivering vaccines, reforming welfare and legalising equal marriage.

Starmer told reporters in response to the PM's speech that it was the latter's "seventh reset in 18 months", the BBC report added.

While meeting the newly elected mayors in the West Midlands, he said the choice going into the next poll was "between a changed Labour Party that puts the country first and party second or continuing with this government of chaos and division".

"The first duty of any government is national security. That will be my first priority," he said.

"This government talks about national security but what is its record - it has hollowed out our armed forces, wasted billions of pounds on procurement and doesn't have a credible plan for the future.