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
a huge response to the tv drama about the post office scandal that saw hundreds of innocent branch managers wrongfully prosecuted for theft. we ll hear from one who s fought forjustice for 20 years. whilst there are some brighter skies ahead for us all there is still some rain in the forecast today particularly across the south, i will have your full forecast here on breakfast. it s thursday 4th january. our main story. a row about emergency cover has broken out between nhs bosses and union leaders, as a strike byjunior doctors in england enters its second day. yesterday nhs leaders made 20 requests for striking doctors to return to the wards and help overstretched services but the british medical association accused them of misusing the system, which is known as derogation. a number of nhs trusts have reported long waiting times in a&e, with some declaring critical incidents. here s more from our health editor hugh pym. # hey, vicky, ooh, ahh # i wanna know when you ll pay u
have made their way there. elections come round in all democracies, but never have the timings aligned like they do this year. 2024 is expected to be the biggest voting year in history. more than 60 countries are scheduled to hold elections, home to some 4.2 billion people representing more than half of the world s population. that s a lot of counting. as well as countries like india, the us and russia here in the uk its expected there will be a general election. it s not yet known when it will be, but prime minister rishi sunak said 2024 will be an election year. in expectation of this, opposition leader sir keir starmer has been speaking in bristol today. he spoke of the apathy facing voters in the uk currently. you re right to be anti westminster, right to be angry about what politics has become but hold on to the flickering hope in your heart that things can be better because they can. you can choose it. you can choose the hope of national renewal, the responsibility of servi
anti westminster, writes to be angry with politicians. why is keir starmer talking in those terms? i m told in strategy meetings again and again his team say that they have two opponent at the election whenever it comes, one obviously is the conservatives, but the other opponent is the idea that no political party or political leader can make a difference. what keir starmer wants to do in this speech is try to persuade the voters that actually, he can be different. almost two harness the mood of anti politics and ride it into downing street. the conservative party would say, hang on a second, keir starmer is exactly what he is decrying here, we have already got richard holden, the chairman of the conservative party out of the traps saying that keir starmer is aware is a web domain, you will hear a lot
again, believe in politics again. i believe he will take some questions from the journalists who were there at the moment. chris mason, bbc news. happy new year to you. you say you are right to be anti westminster when you are talking to voters and you accuse the conservatives of being cynical and populous. are you not talking down the very institutions, the very thing that you aspire to lead? is that not cheap, irresponsible? trio. i that not cheap, irresponsible? no, i am talkin: that not cheap, irresponsible? no, i am talking un that not cheap, irresponsible? no, i am talking up the that not cheap, irresponsible? no, i am talking up the very that not cheap, irresponsible? no, i am talking up the very institutions and the am talking up the very institutions and the very politics i believe in. i and the very politics i believe in. i believe and the very politics i believe in. i believe populism and nationalism thrive i believe populism and nationalism thrive on i believe