Sunak vs Starmer: The battle of the New Year’s speeches

<p>Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer welcomed in 2023 with speeches setting out their priorities for the year and beyond.&nbsp;</p><br /><p>Anoosh Chakelian, Freddie Hayward and Rachel Cunliffe discuss Sunak’s five pledges and why he appears more Blue Peter presenter than prime minister. They also analyse Starmer’s embrace of a Brexit slogan with his promise to help voters “take back control” of their communities, why he is pitching to a new squeezed middle, and his reluctance to talk about big spending.</p><br /><p>Then in You Ask Us a listener asks whether the Conservatives are running the NHS down on purpose so they can sell it off.</p><br /><p>If you’ve got a question for You Ask Us, go to newstatesman.com/youaskus&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Podcast listeners can subscribe to the&nbsp;<em>New Statesman</em>&nbsp;for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit&nbsp;<a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/podcastoffer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">newstatesman.com/podcastoffer</a>.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Read more:</strong></p><br /><p>Freddie Hayward writes Keir Starmer takes the fight to the Tories by <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/labour/2023/01/keir-starmer-speech-government-tories-brexit" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">stealing their slogans.</a></p><br /><p>Zoë Grünewald writes Rishi Sunak's New Year speech showed how <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/conservatives/2023/01/rishi-sunak-new-year-speech-out-of-his-depth" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">out of depth</a> he is.</p><br /><p>Anoosh Chakelian asks are the Conservatives <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/health/2023/01/are-the-conservatives-defunding-the-nhs-in-order-to-privatise-it" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">"defunding" the NHS</a> in order to privatise it?</p><br /><p><br /></p><br /><p><strong>LISTEN AD-FREE:</strong></p><p>📱<a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2022/06/newapp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Download the New Statesman app</a></p><br /><p><strong>MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN:</strong></p><p>❓ <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/podcasts/2022/10/you-ask-us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ask a question</a> – we answer them every Friday</p><p>⏰ <a href="https://morningcall.substack.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Get our daily politics newsletter</a> every morning</p><p>✍️ <a href="http://saturdayread.substack.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Enjoy the best of our writing</a> via email every Saturday</p><hr /><p style="color: grey; font-size: 0.75em;"> Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>