Rishi’s Report Card: Is The Prime Minister Keeping His Promises To Voters?

Rishi Sunak leaves 10 Downing Street for PMQs

At the start of January, after just two months as prime minister, Rishi Sunak set out five pledges on which he wanted voters to judge his performance.

The PM promised to halve inflation, cut waiting lists, grow the economy, bring down national debt and stop the boats carrying asylum seekers across the Channel from France.

Sunak said the pledges would were “five foundations on which to build a better future for our children and grandchildren”.

“No tricks, no ambiguity – we’re either delivering for you or we’re not,” the prime minister declared.

“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.”

Eight months on, HuffPost UK looks at the progress he has made so far and assesses the likelihood of the promises being kept in time for the next general election.

Stopping the boats

If you haven’t already heard by now, Sunak’s mission to ‘stop the boats’ is one he puts at the forefront of his agenda.

But by August, 20,101 people had made the precarious crossing over the English Channel in 2023.

While that is lower than the 25,065 who had made the journey 12 months previously, it is still a far cry from zero.

Even the PM seems unconvinced by his own pledge, refusing to even say when it will be achieved by.

Speaking last month, he said: “I want it to be done as soon as possible, but I also want to be honest with people that it is a complex problem… I wouldn’t be being straight with people if I said that was possible.”

His critics also argue that the drop in crossings this year is actually due to worse weather preventing people from attempting the journey, rather than any government action.

Given the failure off the Rwanda scheme so far, the prospect of reducing 20,000 to none between now and the next election.

Likelihood of meeting the promise: 1/10

Migrants being escorted back to Dover last month after they were picked up in the English Channel.

Halving inflation

When the PM made this pledge, inflation was at a staggering 10.7%, meaning he has until the end of 2023 to bring it down to around 5.35%.

At the moment it stands at 6.8%, although Jeremy Hunt has admitted it is likely to rise again in September.

Nevertheless, most experts expect Sunak to just about hit his target.

However, it is still well above the Bank of England’s 2% target and the jury is out on whether the government can take much credit at all for bringing it down given global factors like oil and gas prices play a huge part.

Likelihood of meeting the promise: 8/10

Growing the economy

As a former chancellor, increasing the UK’s GDP is a subject close to Sunak’s heart.

But, his hopes of achieving this promise were dealt a major blow earlier this week when the Office for National Statistics revealed that it had shrunk by 0.5% in July.

That continued a longstanding trend of poor economic growth in the UK, and fuels concerns that we will fall behind European nations like France and Germany.

In a bid to bring down inflation, the Bank of England has put up interest rates fourteen consecutive times to 5.25% and is expected to do so again before the end of the year, further harming the prospects of economic growth.

Likelihood of meeting the promise: 6/10

Bring down NHS waiting lists

This one is really not looking good. Figures realised today show that NHS waiting lists have hit yet another record.

Official figures revealed that 7.7 million cases are now waiting for treatment in England, up from 7.6 million just a month ago.

According to the Royal College of Nursing, waiting lists have gone up by half a million since he made his pledge in January.

Ministers have tried to pin the blame on striking junior doctors for the alarming trend, but critics have pointed out that the government could end the industrial action by making them a better pay offer.

However, unlike some of his other pledges, this one is ambiguous. There is no numerical target – it is simply to ‘bring them down’ – which gives the PM more leeway to achieve success.

His spokesman said today: “We always acknowledged that waiting lists would go up before they came down.“

Likelihood of meeting the promise: 5/10