UK's Sunak makes pre-election pitch in first King's Speech since 1951
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00:00 In other news, Britain's King Charles III made his first address to parliamentarians as monarch.
00:04 He said his government was focused on increasing economic growth and easing the cost of living
00:09 crisis. The speech at Westminster today outlining the government's priorities for the new
00:13 parliamentary session. The government also expected to promote trade and take advantage
00:18 of Brexit freedoms. My minister's focus is on increasing economic growth and safeguarding the
00:27 health and security of the British people for generations to come. My government will continue
00:36 to take action to bring down inflation, to ease the cost of living for families and help businesses
00:44 fund new jobs and investments. We can now go across to France 24's Bénédicte Paviot standing by in
00:51 London. Bénédicte, good afternoon. What were some of the main takeaways from that speech?
00:56 Well, there were many. You alluded to quite a few there. Let's point out as the first time
01:02 that there's a King's speech in over 70 years because of course his late mother, to whom he
01:07 began by paying a tribute and thanked her for his darling mother's legacy and devotion. Then
01:15 indeed, let's remind our viewers that although King Charles is the head of state, it is the
01:20 current government, so Rishi Sunak's government, that writes this speech that the monarch reads.
01:26 So, there were unsurprising priorities like reducing inflation and helping with the cost of
01:34 living. A confirmation, interestingly, of new North Sea oil and gas licenses that were, as I said,
01:41 confirmed. That is important and that is to help reach net zero, although there are some quite big
01:48 criticisms here of doing that by indeed drilling further. There were pledges to support Ukraine,
01:55 give aid to Gaza. There's very much an angle of crime and justice being focused on, so there were
02:02 tougher sentences for most serious offenders, longer sentences basically. A real priority of
02:10 laws to prevent children smoking, that is another big priority of this government.
02:16 And there was a go-ahead, which will seem very timely, for a Holocaust memorial, a Holocaust
02:22 memorial that we built meters away from where the king indeed was giving that speech.
02:29 You listed, Benedict, a lot of things that the monarch announced essentially what the government
02:36 wants to do in the next couple of months. What does it tell you about the direction
02:41 the Sunak government will be taking in the run-up to the next general election?
02:46 Well, let's also remind our viewers this is an opportunity for this government, for Rishi Sunak.
02:52 Remember the conservatives have been in power for over 13 years. The prime minister has to call an
02:59 election by January 2025. Analysts here really think that it will be called as late as possible,
03:06 and that could be next September, next October. So there would be another basically just about a
03:12 about a year to go. And this is a chance, as he did at the annual party conference just weeks ago,
03:19 for Rishi Sunak, this prime minister, to say that he's the direction that is needed. This is his
03:24 vision, he said, of a better Britain. Now that is something that is hotly disputed by the party,
03:32 the main opposition party, the Labour Party, that is way ahead in the polls, has been consistently
03:37 for over a year, a party that is led by Sakhir Starmer. The Labour Party, to quote them, said
03:44 that this speech and these bills, there are 21, the king referred to 16 of them in his speech,
03:50 was, quote, "a pretty pathetic program of tinkering." So as I said, this is very much
03:57 about the government setting forth its vision and Rishi Sunak trying to regain points, trying to
04:05 convince his party and indeed the population and the nation when they come to vote,
04:09 that they should vote Conservative. So this is yet another, Delano, a yet another starting gun
04:16 for a general election, a general election we know is coming, we know is looming, we just don't know
04:22 when.