welcome to the programme. plenty of elections around the world this year. now know a bit more about what could be happening here in the uk. rishi sunak says the general election is likely to happen in the second half of this year . he didn t rule out it happening earlier but says his working assumption is later this year. take a listen. so, look, my working assumption is we ll have a general election in the second half of this year, and in the meantime, i ve got lots that i want to get on with. that means cutting people s taxes this saturday. that s a tax cut worth £450 for the average person in work. we can do that because we d halved inflation. i want to keep going, managing the economy well and cutting people s taxes, but i also want to keep attacking illegal migration. last year, we got the numbers down by a third, and now we need to get our rwanda schema through parliament, up and running, so we have a full deterrent. and that s how we are really going to solve this
they do change their mind, that s a good thing, they are learning from evidence. i think the better line for the tories is, if things start to get a bit rosier for the economy, if progress is made on immigration, i think what they will want to say is, don t risk this because actually, on things like the environment, immigration, public finances, keir starmer and labour, you can t really trust them, they are a bit more radical. so the tories will really be trying to force that dividing line. but the fact is that keir starmer and labour are playing it so safe, they are hiding very close to the tory line, it s going to be difficult for the tories to do that so i don t think it will be successful. find tories to do that so i don t think it will be successful. . . it will be successful. and keir starmer can t it will be successful. and keir starmer can t take it will be successful. and keir starmer can t take the - it will be successful. and keir starmer can t take the young
welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. we start with the us secretary of state, antony blinken, who is headed to the middle east to visit israel, the west bank, and seven countries over the next week. the us state department says during mr blinken s trip, he will seek immediate increase in aid to gaza as the strip continues to deal with a humaniatarian crisis. the trip comes as the uk foreign secretary, david cameron, warns israel must allow more aid into gaza in order to avoid starvation and large outbreaks of disease. and there are reports of dozens more deaths from air strikes in southern gaza, as israel continues its military operation there. and in lebanon, people gathered for the funeral of deputy hamas leader saleh al arouri. he was killed earlier this week in an explosion. hezbollah a powerful iranian backed group in lebanon has blamed that attack on what it says was flagrant israeli aggression . israel has not commented, but
also on the programme. the latest developments in the middle east. including the funeral of a hamas deputy leader in lebanon. thousands of people were there. prince andrew and bill clinton are named in files relating to sex offenderjeffrey epstein. we ll look at what we ve learnt. and ai terrorism, stethescopes and keyboard keys. all in our weekly look at artificial intelligence ai. decoded is coming up. plenty of elections around the world this year. now know a bit more about what could be happening here in the uk. rishi sunak says the general election is likely to happen in the second half of this year . he didn t rule out it happening earlier but says his working assumption is later this year. opposition labour party leader keir starmer says sunak is squatting in downing street for months on end . here s our political editor chris mason reports. can i welcome to you this morning, rishi sunak, the prime minister? mansfield in nottinghamshire a town the conservatives
much anticipated general election is likely to be held in the second half of this year . speaking on a visit in nottinghamshire, the british prime minister did not rule out an earlier vote, but said his working assumption was that it would be later this year. an election has to be held by january of 2025. 0ur political editor chris mason has more now on the potential strategy behind the prime minister s timing. why might he be tempted, then, by the second half of the year? if the election was in the autumn, in october or later, it would mean that he had two years as prime minister before the election. go earlier than that, where the opinion polls suggest he might lose, and he would end up with less than two years. 0pposition leader sir keir starmer has accused sunak of squatting in downing street for months on ends . he said both the country and the labour party are ready for an election. there had been speculation that sunak could call a vote as early as may.