Rishi Sunak warns UK of 'axis of authoritarian states' which is China, Russia...

In a speech to voters on Monday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned of a dangerous future for the country ahead of a potential national election that could see the Conservatives ousted after 14 years.

Sunak repeatedly attacked Labour leader Keir Starmer, claiming he lacked a strategy for dealing with rogue states and seizing an opportunity. Sunak claimed that his party is better positioned to face a “axis of authoritarian states,” which he named as Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. He also mentioned the war in Ukraine and Iranian proxies attacking ships in the Red Sea.

In order to better position his party to take on the “axis of authoritarian states,” which he identified as consisting of North Korea, China, Iran, and Russia, Sunak said that his commitment to raise military spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030 is appropriate. Among those risks, he claimed, are the war in Ukraine, Chinese hacking targeting members of Parliament, and Iranian proxies assaulting ships in the Red Sea.

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“Over the next few years, from our democracy to our society to our economy to the hardest questions of war and peace, almost every aspect of our lives is going to change,” Sunak said.

“How we act in the face of those changes, not only to keep people safe and secure but to realize the opportunities too, will determine whether or not Britain will succeed in the years to come.”

A little more than a week after his party was rocked in local elections and soon before a national election where Labour is largely predicted to take control of Parliament, he gave a lecture at the conservative think tank Policy Exchange.

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Rishi Sunak has until December 17 to call an election that will take place 25 working days later. Although opponents have urged him to do so repeatedly, he has stated he would do so in the second half of the year but has declined to specify when.

“This Conservative government is out of touch and out of time and Rishi Sunak must do the right thing and give the people a general election,” Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said.

Sunak said Labour was trying to “depress their way to victory” with “talk of doom loops” and “scaremongering about pensions.”

“They have just one thing: a calculation that they can make you feel so bad about your country, that you won’t have the energy to ask what they might do with the incredible power that they seek to yield,” Sunak said.

Jonathan Ashworth, a Labour member of Parliament, called the speech a “desperate attempt to hide from the appalling record of this failed Tory government.”

“After 14 years of leaving the country less secure at home and abroad, the Tories have forfeited the right to talk about security,” Ashworth said. “Millions of people are paying more on their mortgages, crime is going unsolved, dangerous prisoners are being let out early, the armed forces have been hollowed out and the (National Health Service) is on its knees.”

Sunak acknowledged public uncertainty and anxiety but said some of that was due to global upheavals such as the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that despite “storms ahead,” Britain could feel proud and confident again as “transformational technologies,” such as artificial intelligence, could bring progress.

“The paradox of our age is that for all the profound dangers that we face, right now we also hold in our hands an opportunity for human progress that could surpass the industrial revolution in speed and breadth,” he said.

“Technologies like AI will do for the 21st century what the steam engine and electricity did for the 19th.”

(With agency inputs)