The prime minister has just outlined five areas of focus for the coming months.

These are:

• Halving inflation to ease the cost of living and give people financial security
• Growing the economy, creating better-paid jobs and opportunity across the country
• Ensuring our national debt is falling to secure the future of public services
• Cutting NHS waiting lists so that people get the care they need more quickly
• Passing new laws to stop small boats, making sure that those who come to the UK illegally are detained and swiftly removed

Sunak says he is making a simple commitment. The government will always reflect people's priorities, he says.

He says people want the government to focus less on politics and more on the things they care about - the cost of living, waiting times in the NHS, and illegal migration.

He says people accept that the challenges are in part caused by Covid and the war in Ukraine, but that is not an excuse.

"We need to address these problems, not just talk about them," he says.

The PM says he and the government "are taking urgent action" in the form of working out future plans for A&E and ambulances, freeing up beds, and putting more money in social care.

He also says he "hugely values" public service employees and wants a reasonable discussion on what is "fair for the country".

"In the coming days we will update you on the government's next steps."

Sunak concludes: "Those are the people's priorities. They are your government's priorities. And we will either have achieved them or not."

He promises "no tricks and no ambiguity".

"We will rebuild trust in politics through action, or not at all. So, I ask you to judge us on the effort we put in and the results we achieve."

The PM says that his fifth priority is to tackle the number of migrants arriving in small boats: "We will pass new laws to stop small boats, making sure that if you come to this country illegally, you are detained and swiftly removed."

As his fourth priority, the PM says that "NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly".

"We will make sure our national debt is falling so that we can secure the future of public services," the PM says - the third priority he's outlined for the year ahead.

The PM continues: "Second, we will grow the economy, creating better-paid jobs and opportunity right across the country."

PM Rishi Sunak says his first priority is to "halve inflation this year to ease the cost of living and give people financial security".

Rishi Sunak is now outlining five promises he's asking the public to judge his premiership on.

He says he will deliver on them during this Parliament - which means within the next two years, because the next general election must be held by late January 2025.

Sunak begins by saying the new year should be a time for optimism and excitement - but acknowledges some people may be looking ahead with apprehension.

"I will work night and day to change that and quickly," he tells a packed room of journalists.

The PM says he wants to build a future "that restores optimism, hope and pride" in Britain, before going on to address the key issues affecting the UK.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has started to deliver his first speech of 2023.

Sunak will set out his main priorities for the year, which are likely to include tackling the NHS backlog, strengthening the economy, and stopping illegal migration.

He will also discuss plans to ensure all pupils in England study maths in some form until the age of 18.

Stay with us for the latest updates.

Alex Forsyth
Political correspondent

In a few minutes the prime minister will get to his feet for his first big speech of this year.

We’re not expecting huge amounts of detailed policy, instead this will be about Rishi Sunak setting out his priorities in the job.

They’re likely to include addressing the challenges facing the NHS and the economy, and there will be more about his wider vision for the country.

Watch out for one word – deliver.

By the time of the next election, the government wants to be able to point to things it has delivered, and today’s speech will be an attempt to lay down a marker for some of those.

But in reality Sunak knows he has limited time to put his ideas into practice before the country goes to the polls, which many think will happen next year, and therefore only limited time to deliver very much at all.

Gem O'Reilly
Live reporter

Rishi Sunak is expected to address NHS pressures in his speech, which will begin shortly.

The BBC has spoken to various patients about wait times in the NHS and ambulance delays.

Marie Grubb, who fell in her kitchen and broke her pelvis, described her 31 hours of waiting on the floor as agony.

Sarah Jones said she and her 84-year-old dad were in an ambulance for almost 12 hours. Her dad was on the stretcher struggling to breathe with heart failure.

Image source, PA Media

As well as the NHS, childcare reform, striking workers, and the cost of living crisis, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is likely to face questions later on plans to deter migrants from crossing the Channel.

A total of 45,756 migrants crossed the Channel to Britain in 2022, according to government figures collated by the BBC.

It marks around a 60% increase on the previous year's figure.

This is the highest number since these figures began to be recorded in 2018.

Sunak has announced measures to try to reduce these numbers, having previously said that deterring small boats is a priority for his premiership.

The measures included the creation of a new Small Boats Command Centre to bring together the military and National Crime Agency (NCA), and increased funding for the NCA.

He has also pledged to end the use of hotels for asylum seekers, and instead he plans to house 10,000 people waiting on asylum claims in disused holiday parks, former student halls, and surplus military sites.

• Rishi Sunak pledges more staff to help clear asylum backlog

Peter Barnes
BBC political analyst

Rishi Sunak’s speech today takes place against the backdrop of pretty depressing opinion polls for the Conservatives.

Across December they averaged just 26% in GB voting intention surveys compared with 47% for Labour. That was a modest improvement on the polling depths plumbed by Liz Truss in her final fortnight as prime minister, but it was still considerably worse than the party’s rating before the 23 September mini-budget and worse than at any point during the Partygate saga.

Looking at 2022 as a whole, Labour led in every single poll except one, in March, which put the two main parties level-pegging. The party's current rating is the highest it’s been since 2001 and is consistent with the idea that it's on course to win the next general election.

But there are perhaps two chinks of light for the prime minister.

One is that his personal approval ratings are generally not too bad. Most polls put his net approval - the difference between the percentage of people who think he's doing a good job and the percentage who believe he's doing a bad job - just below zero. That is considerably better than either Boris Johnson or Liz Truss managed in 2022, and only moderately worse than Keir Starmer.

The second is that a lot of people who voted Conservative in 2019 are currently telling pollsters they don’t know how they’ll vote next time, but they will definitely vote for someone. If most of them were to return to the Tory Party, that would mean a closer result than most polls now imply.

Sunak will likely be pressed later on the NHS, childcare reform, and striking workers when he lays out his priorities for the year - but the cost of living crisis will likely feature heavily too.

Charities have called on the government to do more to protect vulnerable households from soaring costs, claiming that support has not improved for those who were already struggling.

The government has provided a range of support to ease the financial burden on households since the summer, but costs are expected to soar even higher this year.

Households may face further strain when the price cap placed on the energy bills is increased in April. The universal £400 energy discount, which is being paid in monthly instalments over this winter, will not be continued.

However, additional support , externalwill be available this year for more vulnerable households.

Eight million people receiving benefits and on low incomes will receive a £900 payment in three instalments - one in spring, another in autumn and a final payment in 2024.

There will also be a separate £150 payment paid to those with disabilities during the summer, and a further £300 payment for pensioners during the winter of 2023-24.

Alex Forsyth
Political correspondent

The first few weeks of Rishi Sunak’s premiership were about trying to restore stability after the turmoil of the short-lived Liz Truss government.

He had a few immediate things in his in-tray; we saw him head to the climate summit in Egypt, he sat alongside his Chancellor when they laid out their plans for the economy in the autumn, and in December he told MPs what he would try to do to stop small boats crossing the Channel and address backlogs in the asylum system.

But aside from the words he said in Downing Street on taking office and a speech he gave on foreign policy last year, he hasn’t made many grand statements about what he wants to do in the job, and so today he’s attempting to set out his priorities.

He’ll talk about the immediate challenges the country is facing – the enormous pressure on the NHS, inflation, and ongoing industrial action will undoubtedly come up.

He’ll also try to set out some of his vision for the country beyond simply firefighting, which is why he’ll talk about plans for all pupils in England to study maths in some form until the age of 18, though these aren’t likely to amount to a fully-formed policy and have already come in for some criticism.

With his party trailing in the polls and the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, planning on using this year to really sell himself to the country, the prime minister knows he needs to offer something more than his attempt at a stable government.

The problem for Rishi Sunak is that the next general election – which many think will be next year – is fast approaching in political terms, and he hasn’t got much time to prove he has solutions for some of the problems facing the country right now, let alone being able to deliver on much more.

Image source, Getty Images

Alongside the pressures on the NHS and childcare reforms, one of the key issues facing Sunak ahead of his speech is striking workers.

A winter of multiple strikes has disrupted everything from train services to postal deliveries and hospital care - but the end is not yet in sight. More workers are expected to take industrial action as demands grow for better pay and working conditions.

• January strikes: Who is striking and what are their pay claims

Rishi Sunak’s speech later will come as rail workers from the UK’s largest rail union, the RMT, stage another day of industrial action over pay, job security and conditions - the second of four strikes planned this week.

Sunak has previously promised "tough" legislation to clamp down on strikes by setting minimum service levels on railways.

Later in January, some NHS nurses and ambulance staff plan to take part in further strikes.

But Sunak has said the 19% pay rise requested by the Royal College of Nursing union is "not affordable".

The new leader of the Trades Union Congress, Paul Nowak, yesterday said public services were underfunded and understaffed, and called for an urgent meeting with Sunak in a bid to end the industrial disputes.

Some more people from within the NHS have been speaking to our television colleagues, ahead of Rishi Sunak's speech this afternoon.

Dr Steve Mowle, a spokesperson for the Royal College of General Practitioners, says the recent Christmas period was the busiest he's experienced in the 29 years that he's been a doctor.

"Colleagues are at risk of, or already are, burning out," he says when asked how his practice in south London is coping with the pressures.

Pressed for his opinion on claims that pharmacies should be given greater powers to help alleviate some of the pressure on the NHS, Dr Mowle says it's important to focus instead on what hospitals must do during this busy period.

He says if they can't give the A&E offering people expect - and "need to be offered" - then other less vital services currently running in hospitals need to be halted.