LONDON: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Labour Party rival Keir Starmer will kick off their election campaigns in earnest on Thursday, a day after Sunak surprised the nation by calling a vote for July 4.
Sunak, whose Conservative Party trails Labour by around 20 percentage points in opinion polls, ended months of speculation centered on an election in October or November, and instead used a rain-soaked address to the electorate to kick off what is likely to be six weeks of frenetic campaigning.
Both party leaders are expected to hit the campaign trail, seeking to seize the early initiative by meeting voters and delivering the messages they hope will earn them enough seats in parliament to form a majority government on July 5.
At stake is control of the world’s sixth largest economy which has endured years of low growth and high inflation, is still battling to make a success of its 2016 decision to exit the European Union, and is slowly recovering from twin shocks of COVID-19 and an energy price spike caused by the war in Ukraine.
That backdrop makes the economy one of the most important electoral battlegrounds.
Sunak, 44, announced the election on the day inflation returned close to target, and his early message to voters has been that his plan for the economy is working, and only he can turn that stability into a recovery that benefits all.
“Who do you trust to turn that foundation into a secure future for you, your family and our country?” he told a rally late on Wednesday, casting Labour as a party without a plan.
“We’re working for a Britain where we have renewed confidence in ourselves and our communities. A country where hard work will be met with fair rewards and where the opportunities enjoyed by the previous generations will be there for future ones.”
Starmer, a 61-year-old former lawyer who has pulled Labour’s politics back to the center ground after a spell of electorally unsuccessful left-wing leadership, has pitched his party as one that will bring change for a disgruntled electorate.
“Labour will stop the chaos, turn the page and get Britain’s future back,” he said in an early campaign message to party members, describing the election as “the fight of our lives.”
“This is the moment we’ve been working toward. We must come together to beat the Tories and deliver a Labour government to change Britain for the better.”
If Labour win the election, it would end 14 years of Conservative government and Britain, once known for its political stability, will have had six prime ministers in eight years for the first time since the 1830s.
While the electioneering gets underway, activity in parliament is expected to pick up too as the government works out which of the pieces of legislation currently in process will be rushed through, and which will fall by the wayside.
Laws currently under discussion include Sunak’s plan to impose some of the world’s strictest anti-smoking rules by banning anyone aged 15 and under from ever buying cigarettes.
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer to hit campaign trail as UK election race begins
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Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer to hit campaign trail as UK election race begins
- Both party leaders are expected to hit the campaign trail, seeking to seize the early initiative by meeting voters
Zelensky says Russia preparing for new ‘year of war’
- Putin earlier said Russia would achieve its goals in its Ukraine offensive, including seizing Ukrainian territories it claims as its own
KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday Russia was preparing to wage a new “year of war” on his country in 2026, after his counterpart Vladimir Putin said Moscow would “certainly” achieve its objectives.
“Today, we heard yet another signal from Moscow that they are preparing to make next year a year of war,” Zelensky said in his regular evening address.
The statement was a reaction to Putin, who earlier said Russia would achieve its goals in its Ukraine offensive, including seizing Ukrainian territories it claims as its own, amid a flurry of international diplomacy to end the war.
“The goals of the special military operation will certainly be achieved,” Putin told a meeting with defense ministry officials in Moscow, using the Kremlin’s wording for the nearly four-year war.
“We would prefer to do this and eliminate the root causes of the conflict through diplomacy,” he said, vowing to seize the Ukrainian lands Russia claims to have annexed “by military means” if “the opposing country and its foreign patrons refuse to engage in substantive discussions.”
Putin’s hawkish comments come as Ukraine on Monday hailed “progress” made on the question of future security guarantees for Kyiv, after two days of talks with US President Donald Trump’s envoys in Berlin.
But according to Zelensky, differences remain on the question of what territories Ukraine would have to cede to Russia.
Washington’s initial proposal — criticized by Ukraine and its allies as overly favorable to Russia — would have seen Kyiv withdraw from its eastern Donetsk region and the United States de facto recognize the Donetsk, Crimea and Lugansk regions as Russian.
Zelensky at EU summit
The current contents of the revised plan remain unclear.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Kremlin said Russia was waiting for information from the US on the outcome of the talks in Berlin.
“We expect that, as soon as they are ready, our American counterparts will inform us of the results of their work with the Ukrainians and the Europeans,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
In September 2022, Russia claimed to have officially annexed the Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Lugansk and Kherson regions, even though it did not have full military control over all of them.
Zelensky is expected to attend a summit in Brussels on Thursday to lobby European Union leaders to adopt a plan to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine’s defenses.
He said in his evening address that Putin’s bellicose signals “are not only for us.”
“It is important that our partners see this, and important that they not only see it but also respond, including our partners in the United States of America, who often say that Russia supposedly wants to end the war,” he said, accusing Moscow of trying to “undermine diplomacy.”
