00:00 Hello, National World's Politics Editor Rafe Blackburn here with another episode of Politics
00:14 Unpacked from the heart of Westminster. So what we're going to discuss today is the speech
00:21 that Rishi Sunak gave earlier in the day from the Policy Exchange think tank about, I guess,
00:29 his vision for the country going forward. It was really a big general election pitch,
00:33 a speech of over 30 minutes that touched a wide range of topics. But the main theme of
00:39 this seemed to be the world is getting more dangerous, our lives are going to change,
00:47 and a vote for him is a vote for a more secure future. So let's hear a few of Rishi Sunak's
00:54 words just now.
00:55 Now I feel a profound sense of urgency because more will change in the next five years than
01:01 in the last 30. I'm convinced that the next few years will be some of the most dangerous,
01:07 yet the most transformational that our country has ever known. So the question we face today
01:12 is this, who has the clear plan and bold ideas to deliver a secure future for you and your
01:19 family? The dangers that threaten our country are real. They're increasing in number. An
01:25 axis of authoritarian states like Russia, Iran, North Korea and China is working together
01:32 to undermine us and our values. War has returned to Europe with our NATO allies warning that
01:37 if Putin succeeds in Ukraine, they might be next. War rages too in the Middle East as
01:43 Israel defends itself, not only against the terrorists of Hamas, but a barrage of missiles
01:48 fired for the first time directly from Iran. Right now in Africa, conflicts are being fought
01:55 in 18 different countries. And Putin's recklessness has taken us closer to a dangerous nuclear
02:01 escalation than at any point since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
02:05 So not a particularly cheery Prime Minister there talking about how the world is set to
02:11 get more dangerous than ever before over the next few years. He also talked later about
02:17 how every aspect of our life is going to change. Very weighty comments coming from Sounak here.
02:24 And like you heard just then, he listed through the threats he perceives, including Vladimir
02:28 Putin, Iran, North Korea and China, these kinds of things. And I guess the question
02:36 is, why is he choosing to make this big speech now? Why is he focusing in on that? And I
02:41 think that is because the Prime Minister has been desperately trying to find a wedge issue
02:47 to drive a wedge to create some clear blue water between himself and the Labour Party.
02:52 Now, he's tried to do that with tax by cutting national insurance contributions, and that
02:57 doesn't seem to have made any difference in the polls. He's tried to do it with net zero,
03:01 which he mentioned in a slightly bizarre fashion in the speech, talking about how the zealots
03:05 who are pushing net zero are in fact helping Putin. And that also doesn't appear to have
03:10 really cut through in the polls. And I guess after some difficult local election results
03:16 for Sounak, you felt he had to make this big intervention, which is what we saw today.
03:20 And the reason why he's doing that, I think, is because this week in particular, there
03:23 is a big focus around foreign affairs. Russia is said to be mounting an offensive in the
03:29 north of Ukraine. And also, there's all this focus on the situation in Rafa and Israel
03:35 offensive there. So, you know, big, big issues that are coming to define our times. And he
03:41 mentioned both those conflicts in his speech there. And the reason why he's focusing on
03:44 this is because Sounak himself has promised to increase defense spending to 2.5 percent
03:51 of GDP over the next five years. And that is something that Labour hasn't said it won't
03:57 do, but it said that the way Sounak has said to do it, which is by cutting the civil service,
04:03 the numbers don't add up. So, Starmer has kind of pulled himself away from that bit,
04:08 whereas with some of the promises of the statements, he said, yes, we'll back this, like the national
04:12 insurance cuts and that sort of thing. So that's why, you know, Rishi Sounak is talking
04:18 about this kind of threat, I guess, kind of almost an existential threat to us to try
04:24 and make this dividing line between himself and Labour. You know, in the speech, it was
04:29 over 30 minutes long. It was a bit incoherent, I thought, a bit meandering. He talked about
04:35 these dangers. He attacked the Labour Party saying, you know, they didn't stand for anything.
04:40 He said, Kirstein, you support Jeremy Corbyn now, he's accepted Nathalie Elphick in that
04:45 high profile defection. He hit out at Labour having no vision for the future, whereas he
04:51 has. And he also kind of touched on UK sportswear brand Castor. He talked about A-levels and
05:01 how he wants to scrap A-levels. It felt kind of incoherent and didn't really add up. But
05:05 it was kind of his overall pitch to the public that he's someone who's looking towards the
05:10 future. He's invested in AI, all of this sort of stuff, where Keir Starmer is kind of stuck
05:15 in the past. And I would say it really feels like another last roll of the dice for Rishi
05:20 Sunak. Something I've stood here and said to you before, you know, I said that when
05:24 he presents himself as the change candidate in the Tory party conference. I said that
05:29 when he kind of put his neck on the line with the safety of Rwanda bill and risk all these
05:34 Tories rebels turning against him. However, this kind of new threat discourse that he's
05:43 putting forward does feel like the last roll of the dice. And I think it speaks to a slightly
05:48 chaotic communications package from the Conservatives and the government. You know, it kind of feels
05:53 like they're just going to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. They haven't
05:58 really honed their message, given the changes we saw from the Tory party conference to saying
06:02 about how the plan is working to now saying I'm the person looking for the future. It's
06:06 not that coherent. They haven't really given time for any of it to bed in. Having said
06:11 all of that, at no point have the polls really changed for Rishi Sunak. So you could argue
06:15 he has had to roll the dice and try something new. And he's certainly done that here. And
06:19 the thing that it most reminded me of when I was watching it was actually Donald Trump.
06:24 Donald Trump likes to, you know, prey on fear. He talks incredibly negatively about the state
06:29 of the world. He talks incredibly negatively about the state of United America being in
06:34 crisis, being in chaos. You know, democracy at risk, obviously, despite what he has done.
06:41 And while it was a bit turned down, you know, a bit more academic and a bit more thoughtful,
06:45 that's essentially what the prime minister was trying to do here. He was trying to prey
06:48 on people's fears about the wider state of the world and at home and kind of exploit
06:54 those for votes. I just think that it's all looking very confused and not necessarily
07:02 Rishi Sunak's fault, but people want change. And no matter what, how he paints himself,
07:06 either as the change candidate or the candidate looking to the future come the general election,
07:11 nothing is going to cut through. And I do think this is a slightly cynical attempt which
07:15 could backfire on him. Thank you very much for watching. Let me know what you think about
07:21 Rishi Sunak's speech. Did you think it was interesting? Did you watch it all? Have I
07:26 summed it up well? Did you think it was a bit like Donald Trump? So let us know. You
07:30 can find all of our work on politics on the politics page of the National World at nationalworld.com.
07:35 And you can also subscribe to the Politics Uncovered newsletter every Sunday. And that's
07:42 in our newsletters section on our website. So thank you very much for watching, and I'll
07:45 see you next time.
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