Sunak's 1st speech of 2023 amid challenges: 'This is personal for me...'

British prime minister Rishi Sunak was set to outline his priorities for 2023 on Wednesday (4), using his first speech of the year to try to reassure his Conservative Party, which is not going through the best of times, that he has what it takes to lead them into the next general polls.

Following a failed attempt to become the premier in 2022, Sunak got entry into 10 Downing after Liz Truss, to whom he lost the race after Boris Johnson stepped down in July, failed to continue for more than 44 days as markets refused to accept her unfunded tax-slashing plans.

The 42-year-old Sunak, the UK's first British Asian prime minister, has faced several challenges after taking over in October. While thousands of workers have called strike to protest over pay; the country's health service has been hit by a crisis, and inflation has been hovering around 40-year highs and economists warning that Britain is going into a long recession.

The upcoming speech by the prime minister is expected to be a statement of intent to respond to critics who question whether the former is capable of leading the party to victory in the next elections, Reuters reported.

While the speech has been billed by the PM's Downing Street office as a speech to underline his priorities for the year ahead and ambition to take Britain towards a better future, Sunak is expected to speak on his long-term commitment on issues such as low numeracy rates, the Reuters report added.

"This is personal for me. Every opportunity I've had in life began with the education I was so fortunate to receive," Sunak will say, setting out a new plan to ensure that all school pupils in England study some form of maths till the age of 18.

"And it's the single most important reason why I came into politics: to give every child the highest possible standard of education... With the right plan - the right commitment to excellence - I see no reason why we cannot rival the best education systems in the world."

However, in excerpts of Sunak's speech released on Tuesday (3) evening, his office revealed little more about his plans beyond introducing maths to all students up to age 18 to improve poor numeracy, described by the OECD as affecting "particularly large proportions of adults in England".