hello and welcome. rishi sunak will be appointed as britain s third prime minister in seven weeks later, as he meets the king at buckingham palace. the former chancellor won the tory leadership contest yesterday without a vote being cast, after borisjohnson and penny mordaunt dropped out of the race. he has promised to serve with integrity , and told the party they must unite or die . mr sunak will be the first british asian to lead the government, and at 42 the youngest prime minister for more than 200 years. he has promised to serve with integrity and toe the party they must unite or die. it is the greatest privilege of my life to be able to serve the party i love and give back to the country i owe so much to. the united kingdom is a great country, but there is no doubt we face a profound economic challenge. we now need stability and unity, and i will make it my utmost priority to bring our party and our country together. so what can expect to happen in the next few hou
It really wants to make an impression in the elections, which will have to be held in 2024, it is going to have to show that it repaired some of the economic damage, and that is going to require a thankless focus on daily drama, and much more than nuts and bolts of dealing with the economy, and we will have to see who the chancellor is. the expectation of course is thatjeremy hunt will stay in position. we have got to remember of course he was in the remain camp during the brexit discussion, so he is certainly someone who might also be looking towards europe as a way forward. but overall i think we are going to see this focus on the economic nuts and bolts. that is the only way the conservative party will hope to retrieve itself, to try to find a better way forward by the 2024 election. a really tough task though. we are about to head into a winter of stratospheric gas and electricity prices, that is bound to cause huge economic
In northern ireland in early may. there s a lot of tensions there at the moment. in the republic of ireland, they are celebrating at the moment 100 years since the signing of the treaty between the uk and ireland which set up irish independence and also effectively led to, or cemented, the creation of northern ireland, carving that out from the island of ireland, so a lot of these big political issues that have been there between ireland and britain are really coalescing around this northern ireland brexit discussion, so i think that s something to watch over the next few weeks. both sides are hoping for a breakthrough but i think the people of northern ireland really do need to get that settled. just a quick thought on that, suzanne. there are northern ireland assembly elections coming up in the spring. is there a sense in both brussels as well as in london and in dublin as well that they really want to get this sorted before that campaign starts? absolutely. i think that s the ne
Are still happening, believe it or not, and it s all about the northern ireland protocol. and this really still hasn t been resolved. we have got elections coming up in northern ireland in early may. there s a lot of tensions there at the moment. in the republic of ireland, they re celebrating 100 years since the signing of the treaty between the uk and ireland which set up irish independence and also effectively lead to or cemented the creation of northern ireland, carving out from the island of ireland. so a lot of these big political issues that have been there between ireland and britain are really coalescing around this northern ireland brexit discussion. so i think that s something to watch over the next few weeks. both sides are hoping for a breakthrough, but i think the people of northern ireland really do need to get that settled.
And britain are really coalescing around this northern ireland brexit discussion so i think that s something to watch over the next few weeks. both sides are hoping for a breakthrough but i think the people of northern ireland really do need to get that settled. a quick thought on that, suzanne. there are northern ireland assembly elections coming up in the spring is there a sense in brussels as well as in london, and in dublin as well, they really want to get this sorted before that campaign starts? absolutely. i think that s the new deadline for this. the dup, the main unionist party, has threatened to pull out of government if its needs are not met in the northern ireland protocol so there s a sense that it s pretty politically fragile in northern ireland at the moment so i think there is an incentive now for both sides to get this over the line by the end of february is one of the new dates we re looking at here. thank you. hugh, 30 seconds or so for you to end the programme on