DAILY MAIL COMMENT: PM's bold promise to deliver peace of mind

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: PM’s bold promise to deliver peace of mind

Experience has taught us that when party leaders set out their personal blueprint for a better future, it’s not a bad idea to count the spoons.

Remember Tony Blair’s five pledges, which strangely omitted the one about waging disastrous foreign wars?

Or Ed Miliband’s ‘Better Plan’ – six platitudes etched on a huge monolith, which was dubbed the ‘Edstone’ and ‘the heaviest suicide note in history’, after he crashed to humiliating defeat in 2015.

Then there was Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘kinder, gentler politics’, which saw his party descend into a ghastly swamp of bigotry and anti-Semitism.

With his ‘five pledges to deliver peace of mind’ yesterday, there’s no doubt Rishi Sunak identified the key problems facing Britain

So yes, it’s easy to be cynical. But these declarations are important. They give the public a good opportunity to gauge the calibre and priorities of those seeking their vote at the next election.

With his ‘five pledges to deliver peace of mind’ yesterday, there’s no doubt Rishi Sunak identified the key problems facing Britain – high inflation, low growth, ballooning debt, our crumbling NHS and uncontrolled migration.

We applaud him for levelling with the public about the scale of the task ahead and for his emphasis on delivery. However, the devil, as always, will be in the detail.

To grow the economy, for example, he must reduce the oppressive tax burden on both families and businesses. As every Tory knows, low taxes encourage initiative and stimulate productivity.

The ability to halve inflation, and to some extent to cut national debt, will depend at least partly on global forces. With luck, both aims are achievable.

Cross-Channel migration, however, is a fundamentally British problem. Better liaison with the French authorities and an agreement under which Albania takes back its citizens who enter this country illegally will help in finding a solution.

But the traffickers will not stop sending their boats here until their business model is broken.

That means a complete overhaul of our asylum system, so that claims are dealt with far more quickly – possibly in a third country such as Rwanda – and those not deemed genuine refugees are sent back.

The PM is said to be ‘under the bonnet’ trying to fix both the immediate crisis in the NHS and the service’s huge structural and managerial shortcomings

This will involve a tooth-and-nail fight with the asylum lobby and its lawyers, and probably changes to human rights and modern slavery legislation. We wish Mr Sunak success where so many have failed.

Then there is the NHS. He promises that waiting lists will fall but is vague about when. A detailed plan – thought to include the creation of ‘surgery hubs’ and greater use of private sector capacity – is expected this month. With the service at breaking point, it can’t come too soon.

The PM is said to be ‘under the bonnet’ trying to fix both the immediate crisis and the service’s huge structural and managerial shortcomings. Success or failure could make or break his political future.

He is fortunate in his principal opponent, the lacklustre Sir Keir Starmer. Given the Tories’ deplorable performance in 2022, a more dynamic Labour leader would already be out of sight.

But from his own pitch to the electorate, it’s obvious Sir Keir has no answers to any of the big issues of the day. And though he believes he can win the next election by default, recent close analysis has shown his seemingly unassailable poll lead to be extremely fragile.

Let’s not forget that Neil Kinnock was 16 points ahead in the weeks before the 1992 election and was crushed. Theresa May led by 21 points in the run-up to the 2017 election and lost her majority

Mr Sunak is an intelligent, articulate politician. If he can add to those qualities raw passion and a demonstrable impatience for change, he may yet prevail in 2024. He asks the electorate to judge him on results. They certainly will.

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