The main issues
Sunak's decision to call a general election for July took may by surprise, but may be calculated to take advantage of the improving economy in the UK, and enable Sunak to argue he has fulfilled promises he made to the electorate shortly after taking office. At the start of 2023, two months after succeeding Liz Truss as Prime Minister, Sunak outlined five key priorities for the new year; halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce national debt, cut NHS waiting times, and stop irregular migration via small boats. These pledges reflected the main issues for many voters suffering through the worst cost of living crisis in a generation, as well as a National Health Service (NHS) struggling to cope with winter demand.Unfortunately for Sunak, the only pledge that was definitively fulfilled in 2023 was halving inflation. The CPI inflation rate fell from 10.1 percent in January 2023, to four percent by the end of the year, heavily influenced by falling energy prices . Inflation has fallen even further since, and on the day Sunak announced the general election, the most recent inflation figures were released, revealing that inflation had fallen to 2.3 percent. Despite inflation falling in 2023, economic growth proved far harder to achieve, with the UK economy growing by just 0.1 percent in 2023. Even this weak economic growth was mainly due to economic growth at the start of the year. Going into 2024 the UK economy fell into a recession due to two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the third and fourth quarters of 2023. More recent figures have been more positive however, with the UK economy growing by 0.6 percent in the first quarter of 2024, the strongest economic growth since 2021. National debt, which has been high since the COVID-19 pandemic, increased slightly, although is forecast to fall gradually from the mid-2020s. NHS waiting times also did not fall in 2023, while the number of people entering the UK in small boats has fallen compared to 2022, but will likely still be higher than in previous years. The government's plan to deter irregular migration via this route is to send asylum applicants to Rwanda while their claims are being processed, a controversial policy that was even deemed unlawful by the UK supreme court in November. Heading into the election, on all three of the main issues for voters; the economy, the NHS, and immigration, the Conservatives were seen as less competent than the Labour party.