Sunak sets the election date (sort of)
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 4 January 2024
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Prime Minister has pretty much ruled out a May election.
He said today that he is "working on the assumption" that the General Election will be in the second half of the year... but he is yet to nail down an exact date.
We discuss why he's holding out, the possible dates to put in your diary and how that could cross over with the US Presidential election in November.
And later, the Labour leader Keir Starmer sets out his ambitions for the election year.
Editor: Tom Hughes
Senior Producer: Gabriel Radus
Producer: Laura FitzPatrick
Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell
Video Production: Rory Symon & Shane Fennelly
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.0 | This is a global player original podcast. If you had been listening to us on the newsagents yesterday, |
| 0:16.0 | you'd have heard us discussing at some length how Rishi Sunak was in danger of boxing himself into a corner over the |
| 0:23.2 | timing of the general election and that if he didn't rule out a May election, he would somehow |
| 0:27.9 | look weak if he cancelled it. Lewis Goodall went further. He said Rishi Sunak should announce |
| 0:35.2 | the date. It seems that the Prime Minister might have been listening. |
| 0:40.5 | Just to clarify, you said the second half of the year, |
| 0:42.5 | so you're ruling out of May election? |
| 0:44.4 | I said, look, my working assumption is it will have an election |
| 0:47.2 | in the second half of this year, |
| 0:48.6 | because in the meantime, I've got lots that I want to get on with, |
| 0:51.3 | and that means cutting people's taxes this Saturday. |
| 0:53.9 | That's a tax cut worth... |
| 0:54.8 | It's so reassuring to know that the Prime Minister turns to the newsagents for strategic advice. |
| 0:59.5 | Where else? |
| 1:00.1 | But it wasn't just Rishi Sunak speaking today. |
| 1:02.9 | Kiyah Stama was making his first big pre-election address of the year as well. |
| 1:07.6 | It really feel like a countdown to 2024 has begun. Welcome to the newsagents. |
| 1:16.0 | The news agents. It's John. It's Lewis. And I think that if we had any grace and class, |
| 1:22.5 | which we don't, we would be sending Rishi Sunak and I'm a news agent sweatshirt. |
| 1:28.4 | Yeah. |
| 1:29.2 | Well, well, let's do it. |
... |
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