Rishi Sunak told the Conservative Party conference he would take “radical” decisions to transform Britain, slashing the northern leg of HS2 high-speed rail to Manchester, promising sweeping education reforms and announcing Crack down on smoking.
The Prime Minister said £36bn could be saved by scrapping HS2 north of Birmingham, with the money to be reinvested in higher value road, rail and bus projects, including links between northern cities.
In his speech at the Manchester conference, Sunak also promised major reforms to education for 16 to 19-year-olds, introducing “advanced British standards” that would merge A-levels and more vocational T-levels into a single curriculum . qualifications.
He said the new qualifications would be more rigorous, with students typically studying five subjects instead of the three at normal A-levels, and claimed education would be his top spending priority in the future.
Sunak also announced that the legal age for smoking will rise by one year every year, so that today’s 14-year-olds will never be able to legally sell cigarettes. New restrictions on e-cigarette sales will also be introduced.
“Our mission is to fundamentally change our country,” he said. “If the consensus is wrong, we will challenge it,” he added, citing his recent decision to water down the UK’s net zero emissions target.
Sunak’s widely publicized decision to scrap plans for HS2 phase two during his keynote speech in Manchester, which will now no longer have a high-speed connection with Birmingham, has dominated the four-day event.
Angry West Midlands Conservative mayor Andy Street said Sunak was “cancelling the future” and was considering resigning on Wednesday. “He will respond appropriately,” one ally said.
Sunak said the government’s new priority was to build better east-west links between northern cities across the Pennines. He said the business case for HS2 had changed, with one reason being the post-pandemic reduction in business travel.
“We will reinvest every penny, or £36 billion, into hundreds of new transport projects in the north, the Midlands and other parts of the country,” he said to cheers from party delegates.
Sunak has announced an “ambitious” new Northern Network rail project, including a fully electrified line including a new station in Bradford, as well as a tram system in Leeds and a series of New road plan. He said HS2 trains would run north from Birmingham to Manchester along the existing slower rail line.
Sunak also confirmed that HS2 will run from Birmingham to Euston in central London, rather than stopping at the new station at Old Oak Common. He announced new management for the project’s troubled London leg.
The Prime Minister said the HS2 decision demonstrated his willingness to break with “30 years of the status quo” in British politics, including the post-Thatcher era, which has been dominated by “vested interests”. The Conservative Party has been in power for 17 of these 30 years.
Sunak seems to relish fighting over HS2 with four former prime ministers – Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson – as well as business leaders and regional mayors.
A senior cabinet minister said: “We will continue to make big decisions, take provocations and see what Labor will do.” Labor claimed Sunak had made erratic decisions that undermined British business confidence.
In his 65-minute speech, Sunak described himself as the “candidate for change” at the next election, even though his party has now been in power for 13 years. He does not believe Britain should have to turn to Labor to secure a change of direction.
With polls typically showing the Conservatives trailing Labor by 15 to 20 points, Sunak’s conference speech marked an attempt by the Prime Minister to change the political agenda and force Labor to come up with its own policy response.
Sunak said he would “implement” the tax cuts in response to calls from Manchester Tory MPs for an immediate reduction in tax burdens, but warned that inflation must be brought under control first.
He also claimed that the UK was recovering from the coronavirus pandemic faster than France and Germany, according to recently revised official figures, delighting Tory campaigners “not despite Brexit, but because of it”.
Sunak has taken a tough stance on the NHS doctors’ strike, claiming medical staff want “massive and unaffordable” pay rises and saying the dispute “is about politics, not patients”.
Sunak also mentioned what has become an almost inevitable theme in platform speeches at the Conservative Party conference, namely attacks on so-called “woke” attitudes on transgender issues. “Men will be men and women will be women, that’s common sense,” he said to loud applause.
In his personal summary, he said: “I’m proud to be the UK’s first Asian prime minister, but I’m even more proud that it’s not a big deal.” Sunak added: “It’s time to make a change – and that’s what we are.”
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