Posted by 
LONDON — Rishi Sunak promised new legislation to stop small boats arriving on Britain’s shores from France in a speech urging voters to judge him by his results.
In a wide-ranging address aimed at setting the political agenda for the year ahead, Sunak — whose Conservative Party is languishing in the polls and has seen three leaders in the past six months alone — also promised to halve the inflation rate; grow the economy; make sure U.K. national debt is falling; and bring down record-high health service waiting lists.
Sunak won power after the calamitous Liz Truss premiership last fall, and has been under pressure from colleagues to set out his vision ahead of a general election, expected to be in 2024.
He has faced particular pressure to reduce the numbers of people illegally crossing the English Channel from France, and his government struck a deal with the French government late last year to try and address the issue.
“We will pass new laws to stop small boats making sure that if you come to this country illegally, you are detained and swiftly removed,” Sunak said.
Pressed by reporters later on exactly what he was promising, Sunak said only the issue of Channel crossings was “not an easy problem to fix” or “one that we can fix overnight.”
On the soaring cost of living Sunak promised to “halve inflation this year to ease the cost of living and give people financial security.” The rate of inflation was running at 10.7 percent as of the latest figures for November 2022.
“No tricks, no ambiguity, we’re either delivering for you or we’re not,” Sunak said. “We will rebuild trust in politics through action, or not at all. So, I ask you to judge us on the effort we put in and the results we achieve.”
The opposition Labour Party accused Sunak of making promises that were “happening anyway,” pointing out forecasters are already expecting inflation in the last quarter of this year to fall to 3.8 percent.
Source: Politico
