Tory Party Conference 2023 LIVE: Rishi Sunak is praised for plan ‘improve Britain’s long term future’ but faces backlash for scrapping HS2 Northern link and smoking ban

Railway consultant William Barter, whose recent clients include the Department for Transport (DfT), said the revised plan for the HS2 London Euston station was ‘totally unambitious and rules out options in the future’.

He said cutting the number of HS2 platforms at Euston to six ‘would limit the station to the Phase 1 service’ to and from Birmingham.

‘There would be no scope for expansion to take Nottingham, Sheffield or Leeds trains. It’s totally unambitious and rules out options in the future.’

He added that the plan was ‘exactly the opposite’ of the Tory conference slogan, which was ‘long-term decisions for a brighter future’.

The number of planned HS2 platforms at Euston station has been slashed under the Government’s move to ‘strip back the project’ and save £6.5billion.

The central London station was initially due to have 11 platforms for high-speed trains but will now have six, according to a Department for Transport (DfT) document published after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s speech at the Conservative Party conference.

The DfT document also stated that a planned tunnel between Euston and Euston Square Tube station had been axed.

HS2 work at Euston was paused in February because costs had ballooned to £4.8billion compared with an initial budget of £2.6billion.

Old Oak Common in the suburbs of West London at Acton will be the high-speed railway’s initial terminus in the capital.

Mr Sunak told the conference the high-speed railway will reach Euston but HS2 Ltd will be stripped of responsibility for the station.

The DfT document stated: ‘We are going to strip back the project and deliver a station that works, and that can be open and running trains as soon as possible, and which has the leadership in place to deliver maximum value to the taxpayer.

‘We will not provide a tunnel between Euston and Euston Square Underground station or design features we do not need.

‘Instead, we will deliver a six-platform station which can accommodate the trains we will run to Birmingham and onwards and which best supports regeneration of the local area.

‘That is how we properly unlock the opportunities the new station offers, while radically reducing its costs.’

In his Conservative Party Conference speech in Manchester today, Rishi Sunak:

Axed the northern leg of HS2 from Birmingham to ManchesterPromised to use the £36 billion of savings to fund other transport schemesWill bring together A-levels and T-levels for a new ‘Advanced British Standard’Plans to phase out smoking by raising age to buy cigarettes by a year, every yearPledged to restrict the availability of vapes to children

A spokesman for former prime minister Liz Truss has confirmed she will vote against Rishi Sunak’s plans to phase out smoking.

Today, Mr Sunak told the Conservative Party conference that he plans to introduce a new law banning tobacco sales to anybody born on or after January 1 2009.

He also pledged to crack down on the sale of disposable vapes to children.

Mr Sunak’s predecessor Ms Truss drew big crowds yesterday as she demanded immediate tax cuts to ‘make Britain grow again’ a year after she left office following a chaotic 49 days.

The UK’s biggest tobacco firms saw almost £1billion wiped off their shares today as they warned that the Government plan to raise the legal age for buying tobacco ‘threatens significant unintended consequences’.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the Conservative Party conference that he plans to introduce a new law banning tobacco sales to anybody born on or after January 1 2009. He also pledged to crack down on the sale of disposable vapes to children.

In the speech in Manchester, Mr Sunak said that ‘a 14-year-old today will never legally be sold a cigarette’, under new legislation for England.

He added: ‘I propose that in future we raise the smoking age by one year every year. That means a 14-year-old today will never legally be sold a cigarette and that they and their generation can grow up smoke free.’

The announcement came as a surprise to investors and was felt on the stock market.

Dunhill and Lucky Strike owner British American Tobacco (BAT) saw its shares slide from roughly flat to 1 per cent lower immediately after the announcement, knocking around £600 million of its market value.

Meanwhile, fellow London-listed firm Imperial Brands saw shares fall 2.4 per cent lower after the update. It saw its market value decline by around £340million.

The company, which owns Gauloises and Rizla, said it would engage with the Government but also cautioned over the policy move.

A spokesman for Imperial Brands said: ‘We understand the Government’s desire for new tobacco control measures, because of the health risks associated with smoking.

‘But, like any prohibition, the proposal to ban the legal sale of cigarettes over time threatens significant unintended consequences.

‘On vaping, we will continue to engage with the Government to create effective policies which prevent youth access and build trust in the category as a potentially less risky alternative for existing adult smokers.’

Shares in Supreme, which makes disposable vaping products, also saw its shares move lower this afternoon.

Andy Burnham, speaking at the Museum of Science and Industry, on the site of the terminus of the world’s first inter-city passenger railway, between Liverpool and Manchester, said: ‘We really did give passenger rail, commuter rail, to the world.

‘You may remember, almost 10 years ago, George Osborne came to the building just beyond here to tap into that spirit that the north of England had in the 19th century of pioneering and bringing new developments to the world, to say that he would bring forward a northern powerhouse that would be all about that ambition again for Britain, bringing north-south lines with HS2, east-west with HS3 as he called it then, that obviously became northern powerhouse rail. You name it, we were getting it all.

‘It’s hard not to feel that ten years on from that announcement the Conservative Party have not shown the courage, the conviction or the capability to turn those statements into reality, to the great frustration of the people here.

‘I hope those statements weren’t made 10 years ago just with political intentions in mind, to try and win votes here, but it’s starting to look very much that was what it was all about.

‘Does this country have the will, within it, to actually prioritise the north of England?’

Rishi Sunak’s first Tory party conference as Prime Minister was overshadowed by his chaotic axing of the northern leg of HS2 – while in Manchester – and an early ‘beauty pageant’ for his job.

He dragged the party away from the centre ground and put his family front and centre as train strikes hit the annual jamboree. Here is a look from PA news agency reporters SAM BLEWETT and DAVID HUGHES at the key issues at the conference:

– Party veers to the right

Along with the classics designed to go down well with the party faithful – toughening benefits and slashing the Civil Service – ministers were running head-on into the ‘war on woke’. Policies to court the right were deployed at every opportunity to distinguish the Tories from Labour, with banning transgender women from female hospital wards, protecting controversial statues and taking on the unions among the proposals. Ministers even flirted with conspiracy theories when Transport Secretary Mark Harper suggested councils could ‘decide how often you go to the shops, and that they can ration who uses the roads and when’ with ‘sinister 15-minute city plans’. And Claire Coutinho was challenged on having a flimsy grasp on the truth for using her speech to claim Labour is ‘relaxed about taxing meat’, despite having no such policy. Mr Sunak is acutely aware that it was the party membership – generally more to the right than his MPs – who selected Liz Truss over him in the first of last year’s two Tory leadership elections.

– A coy beauty pageant in plain sight

Plenty of Tory MPs are nervous about losing their seats at the next general election if things go the way of the current opinion polls, but others sense an opportunity. With few thinking Mr Sunak will cling on if he fails to win the next election, those popular with the party faithful were suspected of giving a sneak peek of their leadership pitches. Home Secretary Suella Braverman was crowned the ‘darling’ of the conference, having been embraced by chants of ‘brav-er-man’ after claiming multiculturalism had ‘failed’ and warning that a ‘hurricane’ of mass migration was coming. Ms Truss drew large crowds with her tax-cutting proposals to ‘make Britain grow again’, less than a year after being ousted as prime minister during a chaotic 49 days in No 10. Dame Priti Patel, the former home secretary, was ruling out the return of her Conservative colleague, but not her own prospects as she sniped at former Cabinet colleagues. Kemi Badenoch, the Business Secretary, was also warmly received after claiming that ministers should keep the option of leaving the European Convention on Human Rights ‘on the table’. Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt, the warm-up act for Mr Sunak’s conference speech, hit the key notes of Churchill and Thatcher as she railed against socialism and Labour and urged members to ‘stand up and fight’. Nigel Farage may have rejected Mr Sunak’s open door policy on a return to the party, but the former Ukip leader was gleefully posed for selfies with a steady stream of Tory members.

– HS2 to the North cut, while in Manchester

A conference in a former train station in Manchester may not seem the most politically astute place to scrap the planned new railway line to Manchester. But Mr Sunak believes that axing the eye-wateringly expensive HS2 in favour of a myriad of smaller schemes underlines his credentials as someone prepared to take bold, long-term decisions. The plans repeatedly leaked out before Mr Sunak’s speech, but he refused to confirm them as he hit out at ‘speculation’ while being dogged by questions. The Prime Minister will have anticipated the furious reaction from Labour’s Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, but he will be more concerned by the outcry from businesses and Tory West Midlands mayor Andy Street, and the suggestion that cancelling the line sends the wrong message about the UK’s ability to carry out major modernisation projects. Mr Sunak insisted he would reinvest ‘every single penny’ of the £36 billion saved from curtailing the project into infrastructure, including £30 billion of it in the North and Midlands.

The strike by Aslef’s train drivers on Saturday meant Tory activists struggled to get to conference for the opening sessions on Sunday – they could not all go by plane, as Chancellor Jermy Hunt did. Some clearly decided to avoid further rail disruption on Wednesday by leaving early ahead of the Prime Minister’s speech. During the conference, some of England’s striking doctors staged a protest outside the conference as part of their NHS pay dispute.

The Prime Minister tasked his wife Akshata Murty with warming up the crowd before his speech, in which he pledged to ‘build a brighter future for our children’. Addressing her husband, she said that ‘you know that doing the right thing for the long term, even when it is hard, is the right thing to do’. Mr Sunak praised his ‘wonderful’ wife and two daughters, noted his grandparents’ migration to Britain from India and East Africa, and the start in life his parents gave him. Gordon Brown was introduced to his last party conference speech as Labour leader by his wife, Sarah. He was dumped as Prime Minister six months later. Mr Sunak’s press secretary indicated the public will see more of Ms Murty in the run-up to the general election.

Mr Sunak used his conference speech to set out a phasing out of cigarettes and an overhaul of post-16 education for England. The Prime Minister’s press secretary said that ‘Rishi Sunak is a man in a hurry’ – but the smoking ban will take at least four years to begin and the education changes a decade. Asked then if the new plans were drawn up to pose challenges to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, a Conservative spokesman said Mr Sunak had made the decisions because ‘they’re the right things to do’. But he added: ‘If it puts them (Labour) in a difficult position, then that’s obviously nice, but it’s a secondary consideration.’

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has praised the speech by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, saying it was ‘something else’.

He said in a post on X: ‘No messing around, decision after decision to improve our long term future. Courage too – which is why I am proud of my boss today.’

Andy Street, the Tory mayor of the West Midlands, said he would not resign despite being ‘incredibly disappointed’ about the HS2 decision.

He said he had ‘thought incredibly long and hard about what my future in the Conservative Party should be’, but had decided to remain a member.

‘The West Midlands must be at the heart of the UK’s modern transport network and reap all the benefits that will bring,’ he said.

‘The Prime Minister has today reached out to work with me to make that happen and to turn my back on that offer would be doing a serious dis-service to my region.

‘I know this decision will make me deeply unpopular in some circles, and indeed many wanted me to resign and make a statement against my party.

‘But I have always said that I would put place before party and staying as a Conservative to work with the Prime Minister and his Government to continue the revival of the West Midlands is doing exactly that.’

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, responding to the Prime Minister’s scrapping of the northern leg of HS2 to Manchester, said: ‘There’s a world of difference between a transport plan patched together in hotel rooms at a party conference with no input with northern leaders or mayors, and a transport plan that’s been worked on for years by northern leaders and mayors, with transport for the north, which is a coherent plan representing the voice of the north and what people here want.

‘What’s been announced at conference today is not that coherent plan.’

Labour mayor Mr Burnham said the current plan does not solve the problem of bottlenecks and lack of capacity on the railway network in the north, which covers from Liverpool in the west to Hull in the east.

He said the current plans also do not solve the problems of capacity on the railways running north-south from Manchester to Birmingham and London.

He added: ‘So, we haven’t got a plan here that works north-south or east-west.’

Andy Street has denied that he considered resigning as West Midlands mayor over HS2 but said he thought about quitting the Tory Party.

‘I will remain a member of the Conservative Party,’ he told the BBC after Rishi Sunak cancelled the northern leg.

Mr Street said he would like to run for another term as the Tory candidate in next year’s mayoral election.

‘I intend as part of that to make good on the offer that the Prime Minister has put today to invest a lot more money in transport in the West Midlands, and to look further links between Birmingham and the rest of the West Midlands and the North. He put that offer out very clearly today.’

Andy Street denied that he had been ignored by Rishi Sunak but acknowledged he lost the ‘fundamental debate’ on HS2.

The Tory West Midlands mayor told the BBC: ‘You can’t say ignore when we’ve had, as it’s been reported, a number of meetings. Actually, compared to where we were and where we now are, it is very, very different.

‘So, on that part of the Birmingham-Manchester bit, I’m not bluffing anybody, I lost that bit.

‘But the debate was much broader than that, wasn’t it? The debate actually was about Euston, it was about where it finished in the Midlands, how it connected north, and it was actually about how we’re going to execute this going forward.

‘And, of course, we’ve also heard today that other investment in the West Midlands, which we have separately been lobbying for, and we have achieved that.

‘So, it’s not one-nil, but I acknowledge the fundamental debate of this week, I lost.’

Rishi Sunak today announced plans to scrap A-levels and T-levels by combining them into a new single qualification known as the ‘Advanced British Standard’.

In his Tory conference speech, the Prime Minister outlined how the international baccalaureate-style qualification would see pupils study at least five subjects.

Every student will be required to study some form of maths and English to age 18, Mr Sunak said.

Here is the full report on MailOnline:

Sexually-motivated murderers will never be released from prison, under a crackdown confirmed by Rishi Sunak today.

The PM declared in his speech to that some crimes were ‘so heinous’ that only a whole life sentence is appropriate.

The pledge follows up on a commitment made by Mr Sunak over the summer.

Read the full story on MailOnline here:

Rishi Sunak made his pitch to voters to ‘fix’ Britain today as he dramatically cancelled the rest of HS2 to free up £36billion for ‘hundreds’ of better transport projects – and pledged to wipe out smoking in a generation.

The PM confirmed the high-speed rail move saying the scheme was the symbol of the ‘old consensus’ as he vowed to emulate Margaret Thatcher by ‘fundamentally changing our country’.

He said bosses of the project would be replaced to ‘take responsibility’ for the way it had been bungled, with costs soaring towards £100billion. ‘The facts have changed… have the courage to change direction.’

He added: ‘There is nothing ambitious about pouring more and more money into the wrong project… For too long people in Westminster have invested in the transport they want.’

Read the full story on MailOnline here:

Tory West Midlands mayor Andy Street has said he will not resign after Rishi Sunak axed HS2 north of Birmingham, saying the Prime Minister had offered a ‘good compromise’.

He told the BBC: ‘Obviously I’m very disappointed that he announced that today. As you know, I fought for it to be maintained.

‘But, remember the line is going to run from Euston to Handsacre, where it will join the West Coast mainline. So, compared to what could have happened, this is a good compromise position.’

He also said: ‘I will carry on as mayor, yes.’

Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said: ‘The country is broken after 13 years of poor government.

‘The Prime Minister’s focus should be on fixing the mess created by his ministers and those of the four earlier woeful Conservative administrations.

‘Under his party the UK has become an international embarrassment. People have been pummelled by a cost-of-living crisis no-one in government appears to have a handle on and public services are in a state of permanent crisis.

‘These policy wheezes are a last desperate roll of the dice from a Government that knows it’s living on borrowed time.’

Downing Street said it would take around a decade to introduce the baccalaureate-style education programme for England.

The Prime Minister’s press secretary said: ‘I believe it will take about 10 years for the advanced British standard to replace A-levels.’

Asked why it will take so long, she said: ‘This is a big change to the education system, we will have to work with education experts to work it through.’

She confirmed the policy will be limited to England as education is a devolved matter, but added: ‘If the devolved administrations want to use the same standard then they can, and that would be a good thing.’

The Prime Minister has announced the Government will support a series of transport schemes after cutting HS2 north of Birmingham.

Rishi Sunak pledged to ‘reinvest every single penny, £36 billion, in hundreds of new transport projects in the North and the Midlands, across the country’.

This includes the creation of what he named Network North, which involves improvements to road, rail and bus schemes.

A further £12 billion will be set aside to improve rail journeys between Manchester and Liverpool, which was a project previously announced as part of Northern Powerhouse Rail.

Downing Street said transport improvements will include £19.8 billion invested in the North on schemes such as:

£2 billion for a new station at Bradford and a new connection to Manchester.£2.5 billion to deliver a new tram system in Leeds.£3 billion for upgraded and electrified lines between Manchester and Sheffield; Sheffield and Leeds; Sheffield and Hull; and Hull and Leeds.Nearly £4 billion more funding for local transport in city regions.A new £2.5 billion fund for local transport across all areas in the North outside those city regions.A new £3.3 billion fund for road resurfacing.Fund the proposed Shipley Bypass in Bradford and the Blyth Relief Road in Northumberland.Reopen the Don Valley railway line between Sheffield and Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire.Upgrade the Energy Coast railway line between Carlisle, Workington and Barrow, Cumbria.

The Midlands will see £9.6 billion ‘reinvested’ in projects such as:

Funding the Midlands Rail Hub in full with £1.75 billion to connect 50 stations.More than £1.5 billion guaranteed local transport funding for the new East Midlands mayor who will be elected in May 2024.More than £1 billion extra local transport funding for West Midlands City Region.A new £2.2 billion fund for local transport across all areas in the West and East Midlands outside the city regions.Reopened train lines and new stations such as the Ivanhoe Line in the East Midlands.The development of road schemes in the Midlands to benefit businesses and their employees at Rolls Royce, Toyota and Magna Park.

Schemes in other parts of the UK will receive £6.5 billion, Downing Street said. This includes:

Rail improvements in the South West.Keeping the £2 cap on bus fares in England until the end of December 2024.Transforming the rail junction at Ely, Cambridgeshire.Providing ‘billions’ of pounds to fix potholes.Upgrading the A75 between Gretna and Stranraer to boost links with Northern Ireland via ferries.£1 billion to fund the electrification of the North Wales Main Line.

Rishi Sunak’s scrapping of HS2 north of Birmingham is a ‘colossal symbol of Conservative failure’, Labour’s shadow transport secretary has said.

Louise Haigh said: ‘This staggering Tory fiasco has seen costs soar and the North and Midlands are left to pay the price.

‘Only after 13 years of dismal failure could the Conservatives make the centrepiece of their conference a re-announcement of promises the Conservatives have made before.

‘Is there anything more emblematic of 13 years of dismal failure by this broken Government than their flagship levelling-up project that fails to even reach the North?

‘What started as a modern infrastructure plan left by the last Labour government has, after 13 years of incompetence, waste, and broken promises, become a colossal symbol of Conservative failure.’

Downing Street could not specify when a free vote on the crackdown on buying cigarettes will be held, but the Prime Minister’s press secretary said: ‘Rishi Sunak is a man in a hurry.’

It comes after Rishi Sunak said the legal age for buying tobacco should rise every year to stop youngsters taking up smoking, and also pledged to crack down on the sale of disposable vapes to children.

The Prime Minister said more must be done to ‘try and stop teenagers taking up cigarettes in the first place’ as he set out plans to introduce a new law banning tobacco sales to anybody born on or after January 1, 2009.

He told the Conservative Party conference in Manchester that ‘a 14-year-old today will never legally be sold a cigarette’, under new legislation for England.

Rishi Sunak today unveiled bold plans to stamp out the child vaping epidemic and ban kids aged 14 and under from ever legally being able to buy cigarettes.

The proposed law will annually raise the age of legal purchase of tobacco from the current 18 by one additional year every 12 months.

It will see England follow in the footsteps of New Zealand, which last year adopted the same policy for everyone born after 2009. Under the Prime Minister’s proposed plan, the Government will stick to the same age threshold.

Here’s the full story from MailOnline’s senior health reporter John Ely:

Cabinet minister Gillian Keegan was seen welling up as Rishi Sunak used his Tory conference speech to describe his Indian grandfather’s joy when he joined Parliament.

The Education Secretary wiped tears away from her eyes as the Prime Minister recounted how his family expressed their pride on his election as an MP.

Mr Sunak used his keynote address to the Conservative gathering in Manchester to describe how Britain had ‘done a huge amount’ for his immigrant family.

Read the full story from MailOnline’s political correspondent Greg Heffer here:

The Prime Minister’s press secretary said that some of the moves on HS2 will require legislative changes, but that it would not ‘hold up significant elements of work’.

She said: ‘Parliament has already approved the route between Euston and Birmingham, so work on that route can continue at pace. We do not need legislation to stop work on phases 2a and 2b.’

Number 10 said the funding would be spent on the transport projects in the same 2029-40 period.

Downing Street has confirmed that Cabinet met at 9.45am this morning to discuss the new plans for HS2, after days of speculation about when and how a decision would be taken.

The meeting lasted for 45 minutes. Number 10 said that Cabinet ministers were ‘all very supportive of the Prime Minister’s plan’.

The legal age for buying tobacco should rise every year to stop youngsters taking up smoking, the Prime Minister has said as he also pledged to crack down on the sale of disposable vapes to children.

Charities have been reacting as follows.

Cancer Research UK’s chief executive Michelle Mitchell said: ‘Raising the age of sale on tobacco products is a critical step on the road to creating the first ever smoke-free generation.’

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said: ‘The Prime Minister has today announced an unprecedented set of measures to protect the next generation and hasten the day when smoking is obsolete.

‘We look forward to the day when smoking is no longer responsible for avoidable ill health and perinatal mortality in babies and young children, nor the leading cause of premature death in adults.’

Sarah Woolnough, chief executive at Asthma and Lung UK, said: ‘Today’s announcement for the UK to ban cigarettes for the next generation by gradually increasing the smoking age is an incredibly positive step forward, which will protect the next generation from developing lung conditions caused by this deadly addiction.’

But Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest, said: ‘Raising the age of sale of tobacco is creeping prohibition, but it won’t stop young people smoking because prohibition doesn’t work.

‘Anyone who wants to smoke will buy tobacco abroad or from illicit sources.

‘Future generations of adults who are considered old enough to vote, pay taxes, drive a car and drink alcohol are going to be treated like children and denied the right to buy a product that can be purchased legally by people a year older than them.’

Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden accused Rishi Sunak of having a ‘decaying effect on his party and the country’ in response to the Prime Minister’s speech.

The shadow minister criticised ‘conspiracy theories lifted from the darkest corners of the internet’ which he said had dominated the Tory party conference.

‘After 13 years and five Tory prime ministers, Rishi Sunak’s latest desperate attempt to reset his weak leadership and divided government won’t fool the British public who are looking at Tory failures all around them,’ Mr McFadden said.

‘Sunak’s weakness is having a decaying effect on his party and the country. Members of his Cabinet have spent this week jockeying for position to replace him, while Liz Truss, Nigel Farage and conspiracy theories lifted from the darkest corners of the internet have dominated his conference.

‘How can a man who can’t even run his own party seriously claim he’s capable of running the country?

‘The Tories have let Britain down for too long. They cannot be the change from their own failures. The damage they would do with five more years would be intolerable for working people.’

The Prime Minister has urged western allies to continue to supply Ukraine with weapons and aid in its fight against Russian forces.

In a plea to the US and European powers, Rishi Sunak said President Volodymyr Zelensky’s armed forces would ‘finish the job’ if given the tools they need.

Mr Sunak’s warning for the need to continue support for Kyiv comes as the international allied effort shows signs of wavering.

As he began his Conservative Party conference speech, Mr Sunak said: ‘I am proud to say we have also led the world in providing support for Ukraine. We were the first country to send western battle tanks to Kyiv, now more than 10 others have followed.

‘We were the first country to send long-range weapons to Kyiv, now France and the United States have followed. We were the first country to agree to train Ukrainian pilots, now more than a dozen others have followed. I say this to our allies: If we give President Zelensky the tools, the Ukrainians will finish the job. Slava Ukraini.’

In the US, aid for Ukraine has been left in limbo despite efforts to avert a government shutdown, following opposition from a growing number of Republicans.

Slovakia has meanwhile witnessed a parliamentary election victory by a pro-Russian political party, which has suggested cutting military support for neighbouring Ukraine.

Poland and Ukraine’s formerly close relationship has also suffered in recent months due to disputes over grain and weapons.

Rishi Sunak’s education shake-up adds to the ‘changes that schools and colleges are forever facing’, the president and vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester has said.

Dame Nancy Rothwell told the BBC’s World At One: ‘If the principle of both academic and technical qualifications underlies it, that is a good thing in principle, but it’s yet another thing that the hard-pressed schools and colleges are going to have to adapt to.’

The Northern Powerhouse Partnership Board member also said: ‘I don’t know what to make of it because we have no details whatsoever. As far as I’m aware, there’s been no consultation on it.’

Mick Whelan, general secretary of the train drivers’ union Aslef said: ‘That Rishi Sunak has chosen to announce, in Manchester, that his Government is killing off the dream of HS2, turning his back on the north, and is no longer interested in levelling up, is, almost, beyond parody.

‘He is, yet again, selling Britain short. This is bad news not just for the railway, and the economy, but for Britain. The sooner he takes his helicopter home – the last chopper out of Saigon – the better for Britain.

‘This Government is not levelling up – as it has repeatedly promised to do – but levelling down. This is not the green, efficient, modern railway of the future we were promised. But a dodgy decision based on bad advice that means millions of people will not be able to benefit from this project.’

Conservative MP Richard Holden (North West Durham) said he supported the Prime Minister’s plans to scrap HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester and reinvest the money elsewhere.

Speaking in Manchester, he said the investment will ‘really deliver quickly for communities rather than ploughing ever-increasing sums of money into a project which would just connect city centres up and isn’t even going to be rolling until 2042’.

He added: ‘People right across the country are going to be happier with this project.’

Transport Secretary Mark Harper, asked why the North could not have both HS2 and the other projects announced, said: ‘Because you have to make choices in politics. There is not an infinite amount of money.’

Speaking to reporters at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester after the Prime Minister’s speech, he added: ‘People that disagree with that decision are going to have to tell people why they want to spend that money on delivering the extra speed on the journey from Manchester to London and not on these other projects which I think are more what people want to see across the north and the Midlands.’

People in Burnley are more interested in whether they can get to Manchester Airport than whether they can get from Manchester to London, a Tory MP has said.

Antony Higginbotham, the MP for Burnley, said: ‘I think the decision he took on HS2, bold, but the right one. My constituents are more interested in whether they can get to Manchester Airport from Burnley without changing trains than whether someone can get from Manchester to London. It’s these bread and butter things.

‘Can I get from Burnley to Manchester to go to university? Can I get from Burnley to Manchester Airport to go on holiday? Can I get from Burnley to the next town along to see my parents and grandparents and friends? That’s the thing that my constituents are interested in.’

Meanwhile, Tory MP Dr Luke Evans (Bosworth) said about the plans to gradually ban smoking: ‘There is no safe level of smoking and we’re getting children hooked onto nicotine, it is a very addictive drug. For me, this is a very sensible way of stopping that.’

On HS2, he said: ‘The A5 has been something I’ve been banging the drum for, it’s a straitjacket across growth, from east to west. So for me to suddenly hear the A5 is now going to get the funding that it needs is absolutely fantastic.’

Transport Secretary Mark Harper insisted projects receiving funding from HS2 being scaled back were not previously funded.

Speaking to reporters at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester after the Prime Minister’s speech, Mr Harper was asked by Sky’s Beth Rigby if many of the projects Rishi Sunak said would receive funding after the scrapping of the HS2 project from Birmingham to Manchester has already been promised previously.

Mr Harper said: ‘That’s not right. The £36 billion that we’re saving from not doing the northern party of HS2… these projects were projects that were not happening and not funded.

‘These are projects are now going to happen and they are going to be delivered. And I think they’re closer to what people want to see.’

Put to him that Northern Powerhouse Rail running through Bradford with a new station was something Rishi Sunak had previously cancelled as chancellor, Mr Harper said: ‘The £2billion that we’ve announced that’s going to be invested in connectivity for Bradford and its new station, that wasn’t on the table before the Prime Minister stood up and said that now.’

He added: ‘Under a previous prime minister some of these things weren’t happening. The Prime Minister set out his decision… because his judgment is, the Government’s judgment is the £36billion that we were going to spend on HS2 is better spent on different transport connections.’

Former Tory Treasury minister Lord Jim O’Neill has questioned whether Rishi Sunak will deliver the transport schemes he offered after cutting HS2 north of Birmingham.

The well-known economist told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: ‘If we could really believe all of that was going to happen in some foreseeable future, then I would be perfectly relaxed about what was said, particularly because I was never personally the greatest fan of HS2 in the first place.

‘But it’s very easy for him to stand there and say all these things, and then just presume everybody forgets about it in another few months.’

The crossbench peer added: ‘He is the Prime Minister of a party that the past 13 years hasn’t delivered on any other commitments, including by the way electrification, which is what he really focused on. That’s been said by them many times before and they haven’t.’

Health minister Helen Whately has welcomed the plan to gradually ban smoking, saying: ‘I think this will be a really generational shift.’

She said: ‘I think it was a fantastic speech by the Prime Minister, making really bold decisions and making the right decisions.

‘And he’s prepared to take on people who are criticising him because he knows what he’s doing is the right thing. On the smoking decision, well, I know and I see it that we would do so much better if we could prevent people from falling ill in the first place, better for our health system and clearly better for individuals themselves.

‘And we know that smoking is such a big killer, it’s so hard once you start smoking, once you become addicted, to stop. So a much better way is to stop people smoking in the first place. And I think this will be a really generational shift.’

Residents in a Staffordshire village where HS2 bought up family homes to make way for the line to Manchester have ‘suffered immensely’ and will be ‘relieved’ to hear it has been cancelled – but now they must be compensated, a local councillor has said.

Cllr Jamie Stephenson, the chairman of Madeley Parish Council, near Stoke-on-Trent, said the controversial rail project has already had a ‘major impact’ on the villages of Madeley, Whitmore and others nearby despite still being in the early stages of work, with farmers ‘turfed out’ of their land and family homes emptied.

Speaking after an announcement by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that the project from Birmingham to Manchester would be axed, Cllr Stephenson said the decision should have been made years ago to save residents from stress and heartache.

He said: ‘We have had loads of farmers who have had their land compulsory purchased, some of them have been left completely heartbroken because these farms were their whole lives, some were born there and grew up there and they have been taken away from them and they don’t really understand why.

‘A lot of it has been for early environmental works, which, from what we can see, is planting small trees and carving up the fields.

‘It has been really unclear what the actual purpose of that is, other than to try and diminish the environmental impact of HS2, while they are ripping up ancient woodland in the process. It has been very strange process.

‘To be frank, the biggest problems were probably yet to come with the construction work itself so I think we have been lucky that those main construction works haven’t actually started. In the rest of the country we have seen huge works for very little benefit, from what we can tell.’

Changes made to HS2 and wider transport investment plans are a ‘good deal for the Midlands’, Transport Secretary Mark Harper said.

Speaking to reporters at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester after the Prime Minister’s speech, and asked what he would say to Tory West Midland mayor Andy Street, Mr Harper said: ‘Andy Street has got a big investment in the West Midlands.

‘We’re delivering phase one of HS2, which will go to Birmingham, deliver the benefits to Birmingham that we wanted to see, all that extra capacity, we’re going to build the Midlands rail hub in full, with connectivity between Birmingham and 50 other stations, it’s a good deal for the Midlands, both West Midlands and East Midlands.

‘It’s a strong package and we will work with Andy and mayors of all political parties to make sure we deliver it in the months and years ahead.’

Some of the money that will be redirected away from HS2 to other transport projects in the North will be ‘available sooner rather than later’, Transport Secretary Mark Harper said.

Speaking to reporters at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester after the Prime Minister’s speech, Mr Harper said: ‘We will be working closely with mayors in the North and the Midlands of all political parties to deliver for the people that we all seek to serve.’

‘HS2 was not going to arrive in this city for 20 years, so we are taking the money we are saving. Some of it will be available sooner rather than later.

‘Of course it’s not all going to be available next year to spend, but it was never going to be spent all next year on HS2.’

He added: ‘This set of transport needs I think are closer to what people want to see than what was on the table before.’

Rishi Sunak used his first Tory conference speech as party leader to set out his vision for the country, pitching himself as a radical reformer ahead of the next general election. Here are the key points from the address in Manchester.

Rishi Sunak confirmed he is cancelling the northern leg of HS2, claiming the ‘facts have changed’ and calling it the ‘ultimate example of the old consensus’. The Prime Minister said he would spend ‘every single penny’ of the £36 billion saved from scrapping the northern leg of HS2 on new transport projects in the North and Midlands.The Prime Minister said that HS2 will still run to Euston in central London, but said that the current management would ‘no longer be responsible’ for the site.He also proposed raising the smoking age by one year, every year, meaning a 14-year-old today will never legally be sold a cigarette. He said that there would be a Commons vote on the change in the law in the future, but said it would be a free vote for MPs.The Prime Minister promised to bring forward measures to restrict the availability of vapes to children.Rishi Sunak said that he would introduce a major reform of secondary school qualifications, bringing together A-levels and T-levels to create a new ‘Advanced British Standard’ which will see students covering more subjects.To applause, he told the audience: ‘A man is a man, a woman is a woman. That’s just common sense.’In a pre-election pitch to voters, he said that he was the leader with a long-term vision who could ‘change our country for the better’.He said he had taken a more ‘pragmatic’ and ‘proportionate’ approach to reaching net zero, defending his recent changes and insisted the UK ‘will still get to net zero by 2050’.Rishi Sunak emphasised the UK’s support for Ukraine in the conflict against Russia. ‘If we give President Zelensky the tools, Ukraine will finish the job,’ he told members to applause.He launched repeated attacks on Labour and leader Sir Keir Starmer, referencing, too, former leader Jeremy Corbyn. He also mocked former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Rishi Sunak’s party conference speech lasted one hour and four minutes, nearly half an hour longer than the speech given by his predecessor Liz Truss at the 2022 conference.

Mr Sunak’s speech was the joint longest delivered by a Conservative prime minister at a party conference this century, equalling the one hour and four minutes managed by Theresa May in 2017.

Sir Ed Davey has described Rishi Sunak’s Tory conference speech as ’empty rhetoric from a lame-duck Prime Minister’.

The Liberal Democrats leader said: ‘This chaotic conference shows Rishi Sunak has lost control of his party and lost the trust of the country.

‘Every bungled announcement confirms that this shambles of a Conservative Party is not fit to govern.

‘Sunak had no answers on how to fix our crumbling health services or help people seeing their bills go through the roof. Instead we got just more empty rhetoric from a lame-duck Prime Minister who is running scared of a general election.

‘It’s time to give the British people the chance to kick Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party out of government.’

Rishi Sunak concluded his conference speech by saying: ‘We will be bold, we will be radical, we will face resistance and we will meet it.

‘We will give the country what it so sorely needs and yet too often has been denied, a Government prepared to make long-term decisions so that we can build a brighter future for everyone.

‘Be in no doubt, it is time for a change, and we are it.’

As he celebrated the UK’s ‘family of nations’, Mr Sunak joked about former SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon.

He said: ‘Today our Union is the strongest it has been in a quarter of a century.

‘The forces of separatism are in retreat across out country. Nicola Sturgeon wanted to go down in the history books as the woman who broke up our country, but it now looks like she may go down for very different reasons.’

Ms Sturgeon stepped down as first minister in March this year.

Sixth formers will study five subjects rather than three under the new ‘Advanced British Standard’, and students will spend more time in school, Rishi Sunak has said.

He said: ‘Our 16 to 19-year-olds spend around a third less time in the classroom than some of our competitors.

‘We must change this, so with our Advanced British Standard, students will spend at least 195 hours more with a teacher.’

He added: ‘A-level students generally only do three subjects compared to the seven studied by our economic competitors.

‘The Advanced British Standard will change that too, with students typically studying five subjects and thanks to the extra teaching time we are introducing, the great breadth won’t come at the expense of depth which is such a strength of our system.’

Rishi Sunak announced up to £30,000 in tax-free bonuses for those teaching key subjects.

He said: ‘In order to attract and retain more teachers, those who teach key subjects in schools and – for the first time – in our further education colleges too, will receive special bonuses of up to £30,000 tax free over the first five years of their career.

‘Our teachers do one of the most valuable jobs in our society and we should reward them for that.’

The Government will stop universities from enrolling students on courses that ‘do nothing for their life chances’, Rishi Sunak has said.

The Prime Minister told party members: ‘Labour pursued the false dream of 50 per cent of children going to university and abandoned apprenticeships.

‘This assumption that the only route to success was the university route was one of the great mistakes of the last 30 years. It led to thousands of young people being ripped off by degrees that did nothing to increase their employability or earnings potential.

‘So we are stopping universities from enrolling students on courses that do nothing for their life chances. Under us no more rip-off degrees.’

Reacting to the HS2 announcement today, Laurence Turner, the GMB union’s head of research and policy, said: ‘Rishi Sunak’s decision to inflict the biggest rail cut since the Beeching axe will send a shockwave through the construction industry and railway supply chain, costing hundreds of jobs.

‘The UK’s political instability was already holding the economy back – it will now be even harder to fund and deliver the new infrastructure that the country desperately needs.

‘We can’t rebalance the economy or fix the railway capacity crisis without HS2. It’s essential that the planned route is now protected so that a future government can reverse this disastrous decision.’

The Government will introduce a new, combined single qualification, the Advanced British Standard, bringing together A-levels and T-levels, the Prime Minister has announced.

Rishi Sunak told the Tory conference: ‘We will introduce the new rigorous, knowledge-rich Advanced British Standard, which will bring together A-levels and T-levels into a new single qualification for our school leavers.

‘First, this will finally deliver on the promise of parity of esteem between academic and technical education. Because all students will sit the Advanced British Standard.

‘Second, we will raise the floor ensuring that our children leave school literate and numerate because with the Advanced British Standard all students will study some form of maths and English to 18 with extra help for those who struggle most.

‘In our country no child should be left behind.’

The Prime Minister has announced the Government will support a series of transport schemes after cutting HS2 north of Birmingham.

Rishi Sunak pledged to ‘reinvest every single penny, £36billion, in hundreds of new transport projects in the North and the Midlands, across the country’.

This includes the creation of what he named Network North, which involves improvements to road, rail and bus schemes.

The projects he mentioned in his speech to the Conservative Party conference were:

Train journeys from Manchester on a ‘fully electrified line’ to a new station in Bradford in 30 minutes, Sheffield in 42 minutes and Hull in one hour and 24 minutes.He will ‘protect the £12 billion to link up Manchester and Liverpool as planned’.Build the Midlands Rail Hub connecting 50 stations.Extend the West Midlands Metro.Build a tram network in Leeds.Electrify the North Wales Mainline.Keep the £2 cap on single bus fares across England.Upgrade the A1, A2, A5 and M6 roads.Upgrade the A75 to boost links between Scotland and Northern Ireland.Fund the proposed Shipley Bypass in Bradford, the Blyth Relief Road in Northumberland and ‘deliver 70 other road schemes’.Resurface roads ‘across the country’.Reopen the Don Valley railway line between Sheffield and Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire.Upgrade the Energy Coast railway line between Carlisle, Workington and Barrow, Cumbria.Build ‘hundreds of other schemes’.

The Prime Minister earlier said the UK was not a ‘racist country’ as he highlighted the diversity within the Conservative Party.

Rishi Sunak made a nod to Disraeli as the first ethnic minority prime minister, and pointed to the three female Conservative prime ministers.

He added: ‘I stand before you today as the first non-white leader in our country’s history. Meanwhile Labour’s last three leaders all live within the same square mile of north London.’

Mr Sunak went on to refer to his own selection as a Conservative candidate, adding: ‘The people of North Yorkshire were not interested in my colour, but my character.

‘Never let anyone tell you that this is a racist country. It is not. My story is a British story, a story about how a family can go from arriving here with little, to Downing Street in three generations.

‘What does the Conservative Party offer a family of immigrants? The chance to become energy secretary, business secretary, home secretary, foreign secretary, even the chance to become prime minister.’

The Daily Mail’s deputy political editor Harriet Line has been tweeting about Rishi Sunak’s speech throughout, and has just posted about its conclusion here:

Rishi Sunak said that he would introduce a major reform of secondary school qualifications, bringing together A-levels and T-levels to create a new ‘Advanced British Standard’ which will see students covering more subjects.

Rishi Sunak celebrated the UK’s multiculturalism, praising his own Government’s diversity.

He told the Tory conference: ‘I am proud to be the first British-Asian Prime Minister, but you know what? I am even prouder that it is just not a big deal.

‘And just remember it was the Conservative Party that made that happen, not the Labour Party.’

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union has also now reacted to the Prime Minister axing the HS2 project from Birmingham to Manchester.

Mick Lynch, its general secretary, said: ‘The incompetence of successive Tory governments has now cost the taxpayer billions and led to this disastrous decision for Britain’s economy, environment and our ailing transport infrastructure.

‘High Speed rail together with a modern expanding public transport network is key to the future of linking every part of our country together, from north to south and East to West.

‘Public transport investment is not an either-or question. The fact is we will not be able to tackle the climate emergency without encouraging people to use modern, cheap and efficient high speed rail and hugely expanded local bus services.

‘The key to thriving economies of the future is to be environmentally sustainable and to interconnect cities, towns and villages to promote economic activity.

‘The Conservative government is playing political games ahead of an election and instead of investing properly in Britain’s public transport and high speed future, Rishi Sunak risks putting the country in the slow lane.’

The London Chamber of Commerce has reacted to Rishi Sunak axing the HS2 project from Birmingham to Manchester and promising to use the £36billion of savings to fund hundreds of other transport schemes.

James Watkins from the group said this afternoon: ‘Businesses in the capital expected a high speed rail link that would boost productivity and growth not just for London but for the Midlands and the North West.

‘While the Prime Minister states that the money saved can be used for new rail connections in the North West, our discussions with Manchester City Council have indicated that this is easier said than done and that up front costs may lead to the same delays that we previously saw with HS2.’

Rishi Sunak has promised to legislate to ensure ‘sadistic’ killers spend the rest of their lives in prison, saying this should not be ‘controversial’.

He said: ‘I am clear there are some crimes so heinous that those who perpetrate them should spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

‘So I can confirm that we will legislate for sexual and sadistic murders to carry a full life term with no prospect of release.

‘We are going to change this country and that means life means life. Now that shouldn’t be a controversial position, the vast majority of hard-working people agree with it.

‘And it also shouldn’t be controversial for parents to know what their children are being taught in school about relationships, patients to know when hospitals are talking about men or women.

‘And we shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be. A man is a man, a woman is a woman, that’s just common sense.’

These are the top lines from Rishi Sunak’s speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester so far today. He:

Cancelled the HS2 project from Birmingham to Manchester and promised to use the £36billion of savings to fund hundreds of other transport schemes;Confirmed HS2 will run to Euston in Central London, rather than terminating at Old Oak Common in Acton;Promised to bring forward measures to restrict the availability of vapes to children;Proposed raising the smoking age one year, every year, meaning a 14-year-old today could never legally be sold cigarettes;Said the Government will deliver more than 70 road schemes, resurface roads across the country and ‘keep the £2 bus fare across the whole country’;Attacked Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer as ‘the walking definition of the 30-year political status quo’;Promised to ‘lead in a different way’ and to ‘tell it as it is’;Acknowledged there was an ‘exhaustion with politics’ as he hit out at the last 30 years of political consensus.

Rishi Sunak has said he will bring forward measures to restrict the availability of vapes to children.

The Prime Minister said about the rise in vaping among children: ‘We must act before it becomes endemic, so we will also bring forward measures to restrict the availability of vapes to our children, looking at flavours, packaging displays and disposable vapes.

‘As Prime Minister, I have an obligation to do what I think is the right thing for our country in the long-term. And as Conservatives, we have never shirked that responsibility.

‘We have always been at the front of society leading it and when we have the tools at our disposal to deal with the biggest cause of preventable illness and death in our country, to cut cancer deaths by a quarter, to significantly reduce long-term pressure on our NHS and to do for our children, what we all in our heart of hearts know is right, we must act, we must lead.

‘We must put the next generation first and that is what I will do.’

Rishi Sunak has said he ‘will do whatever is necessary to stop the boats’.

The Prime Minister told the Tory Party conference: ‘Small boat crossings are for the first time since the phenomenon began down 20 per cent this year. All while entry into Europe is up.

‘We are by no means where we want to be but don’t let anyone tell you we aren’t making progress, we are and we will get there. Our new law will ensure that if you come here illegally, you will be detained and swiftly removed. Now I’m confident that once flights start going regularly to Rwanda, the boats will stop coming.’

He added: ‘I am confident that our approach complies with our international obligations. But know this: I will do whatever is necessary to stop the boats.’

On his own conscience in regard to smoking, the Prime Minister told Conservative Party conference: ‘I want you all and the country to know where mine is.

‘For a Conservative, measures that restrict choice are never easy. I know not everyone in this hall will agree with me on this.

‘But I have spent a long time weighing up this decision. Simply put, unlike all other legal products, there is no safe level of smoking.

‘What has ultimately swayed me is that none of us, not even those who smoke, want our children to grow up to be smokers and this change can make that a reality.

‘It will save more lives than any other decision we could take.’

Mail on Sunday commentator Dan Hodges has described today’s speech by Rishi Sunak as a ‘checklist of second tier policy announcements’:

Rishi Sunak proposed raising the smoking age one year, every year, meaning a 14-year-old today could never legally be sold cigarettes.

The Prime Minister said: ‘I propose that in future we raise the smoking age by one year, every year. That means a 14-year-old today will never legally be sold a cigarette, and that they and their generation can grow up smoke-free.

‘We know this works. When we raised the smoking age to 18, smoking prevalence dropped by 30 per cent in that age group.’

Referring to smoking as the single biggest cause of preventable death in the UK, he added: ‘We have a chance to cut cancer deaths by a quarter, significantly ease those pressures, and protect our children, and we should take it.

Mr Sunak said there would be a Commons vote on the change in the law in the future, but said it would be a free vote, describing it as a ‘matter of conscience’.

Rishi Sunak challenged opponents of his transport plan to say they would cancel the projects he announced in his conference speech.

He said: ‘For too long people in Westminster have invested in the transport they want, not the transport the rest of the country – particularly the North and the Midlands – wants and needs.

‘And to those who disagree, who will focus on what I have stopped, I ask you to consider what we have just created with Network North.

‘An alternative which in place of one delayed and overrunning project will now begin hundreds upon hundreds of new projects, large and small, road and rail, bus and train covering the whole country that will be delivered faster, that will see every region receiving more investment than they would have done.

‘You can’t have both, so those who wish to disagree with me, I respect that. But they should have the honesty to admit that they would now be cancelling the hundreds of alternative projects right across the country that people will benefit from instead.’

Rishi Sunak has backed Tory London mayoral candidate Susan Hall, saying she is holding Sadiq Khan to account and that Londoners will be ‘safer with Susan’.

The Daily Mail’s political team have been tweeting about the cigarette ban announcement, with Jason Groves saying it had a ‘good reception’ in the hall:

Rishi Sunak has promised a major new development around Euston station will save £6.5billion compared to HS2 plans.

He said: ‘The management of HS2 will no longer be responsible for the Euston site. There must be some accountability for the mistakes made, for the mismanagement of this project.

‘We will instead create a new Euston development zone building thousands of new homes for the next generation of homeowners, new business opportunities and a station that delivers the capacity we need.

‘And in doing so, for the first time in the lifecycle of this project, we will have cut costs. The £6.5 billion of savings that Mark (Harper) and I are making will be taken from the Euston site and given to the rest of the country.’

Rishi Sunak has proposed raising the smoking age by one year, every year, meaning a 14-year-old today will never legally be sold a cigarette.

The proposal has already been blasted by Christopher Snowdon from the Institute of Economic Affairs think tank.

He said: ‘Not only is this prohibitionist wheeze hideously illiberal and unconservative, it is full of holes. It will create a two tier society in which adults buy cigarettes informally from slightly older adults and will inflate the black market in general.

‘It may well breach equalities legislation and will very likely be challenged in the courts. It will certainly create huge problems for retailers and may ultimately require a system of national ID cards.’

Akshata Murty stepped into the spotlight today to introduce her ‘best friend’ and rom-com obsessed husband Rishi Sunak at the Conservative Party Conference.

The Prime Minister’s wife gave a surprise speech about the man behind the role to the delight of party members in Manchester.

She described him as a proud Briton and son of immigrants who is driven by ‘aspiration’. Read the full story on MailOnline today:

Rishi Sunak has announced that the smoking age should be raised by one year every year, which means a 14-year-old today will never be able to buy a cigarette.

Rishi Sunak has said ‘we will protect the £12billion to link up Manchester and Liverpool as planned and we’ll engage with local leaders on how best to deliver that scheme’.

He added: ‘We’ll build the Midlands Rail Hub connecting 50 different stations, we will help (West Midlands Mayor) Andy Street extend the West Midlands Metro, we will build the Leeds tram, we will electrify the North Wales mainline, upgrade A1, the A2, the A5, the M6.

‘We will connect our union with the A75, boosting links between Scotland and Northern Ireland.’

He also said the Government will deliver ’70 other road schemes’, ‘resurface roads across the country’ and ‘keep the £2 bus fare across the whole country’.

Rishi Sunak has said ‘we will complete the line from Birmingham to Euston’ given how far along construction is.

The Prime Minister told the Tory Party conference: ‘Our plan will drive far more growth and opportunity here in the North than a faster train to London ever would.’

He went on: ‘And given how far along construction is, we will complete the line from Birmingham to Euston and yes, HS2 trains will still run here to Manchester and journey times will be cut between Manchester, Birmingham, London by 30 minutes. And I say this to Andy Street, a man I have huge admiration and respect for, I know we have different views on HS2.

‘But I also know we can work together to ensure a faster, stronger spine, quicker trains and more capacity between Birmingham and Manchester.’

The Prime Minister added: ‘As a result of the decision we are taking today, every region outside of London will receive the same or more Government investment than they would have done under HS2, with quicker results.

‘No government has ever developed a more ambitious scheme for northern transport than our new network north.

‘This is the right way to drive growth and spread opportunity across our country, to level up.’

The Daily Mail’s deputy political editor Harriet Line points out that Rishi Sunak is trying to counter his critics on HS2:

Rishi Sunak axed the HS2 project from Birmingham to Manchester and promised to use the £36billion of savings to fund hundreds of other transport schemes.

The Prime Minister told his party’s conference, taking place in Manchester, the HS2 project’s costs had ‘more than doubled’.

He said: ‘I say to those who backed the project in the first place, the facts have changed.

‘And the right thing to do when the facts change is to have the courage to change direction.’

On the future of HS2, Rishi Sunak said he would cancel it and replace it with a new ‘Network North’.

The Prime Minister told the Conservative Party conference: ‘I say to those who backed the project in the first place, the facts have changed and the right thing to do when the facts change is to have the courage to change direction.

‘So I am ending this long-running saga. I am cancelling the rest of the HS2 project and in its place, we will reinvest every single penny, £36billion in hundreds of new transport projects in the north and the midlands, across the country.

‘This means £36billion of investment in the project that will make a real difference across our nation.’

HS2 will still run to Euston in Central London, Rishi Sunak has confirmed.

The Prime Minister also said the management of HS2 will no longer be responsible for the Euston site, and a new company will be created to develop the station.

Rishi Sunak attacked Sir Keir Starmer as ‘the walking definition of the 30-year political status quo’.

He said: ‘You just cannot know what you are going to get with him. The only thing that’s certain is that it won’t be what he is promising you.

‘But the worst thing about Sir Keir is that he just says whatever he thinks will benefit him the most. Doesn’t matter whether he can deliver it, doesn’t matter if it’s true. It doesn’t matter if he said the opposite just a few weeks or months ago.

‘He is the walking definition of the 30-year political status quo I am here to end. That is why we have to beat him and, conference, that is why we will.’

Rishi Sunak has promised to ‘lead in a different way’ and to ‘tell it as it is’.

He told the Tory party conference: ‘So as much to the country, I make this promise to all of you in this hall: as I did last summer, I will tell it as it is. I will lead in a different way because that is the only way to create the sort of change in our politics in our country that we all desperately want to see.’

He went on: ‘You can’t borrow your way out of inflation and if we want fundamental change in our country, we need a strong economy as a foundation. That is why halving inflation was the first and most important of the five priorities I set out at the start of the year.

‘Everything we want to achieve requires getting inflation under control: inflation is the biggest destroyer of all, of industry, of jobs, of savings and of society. No policy which puts at risk the defeat of inflation, no matter its short-term attraction, can be right. Not my words. But those of Margaret Thatcher as true now as they were then.’

He went on: ‘I know you want tax cuts, I want them too, and we will deliver them but the best tax cut we can give people right now is to halve inflation and ease the cost of living.’

The Daily Mail’s Jason Groves described Transport Secretary Mark Harper as ‘clapping enthusiastically’ as Rishi Sunak announced the northern leg of HS2 would be scrapped:

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the Government will ‘keep the £2 bus fare across the whole country’

Rishi Sunak set out his plan to fundamentally change the country as he prepared to axe the HS2 rail line from Birmingham to Manchester due to its spiralling cost.

The Prime Minister said there was an ‘undeniable sense that politics just doesn’t work the way it should’ with a ‘broken system’.

Portraying himself as the man to take long-term decisions, he said he would act to defend ‘common sense’ values.

Mr Sunak, who was introduced by wife Akshata Murty, told the conference in Manchester ‘change is difficult, particularly for those who disagree’.

But he said: ‘Where a consensus is false, we will challenge it. Where a vested interest is placing itself above the needs of the people, we will stop it.

‘And where common sense is under attack from an organised assault we will defend it.’

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: ‘I am cancelling the rest of the HS2 project and in its place we will reinvest every single penny, £36billion, in hundreds of new transport projects in the north and the midlands, across the country.’

The Prime Minister has said ‘change is difficult, particularly for those who disagree’.

In his conference speech, Rishi Sunak told party members he decided to ‘take a pragmatic proportionate and realistic approach to reaching net zero’.

He went on: ‘And I won’t take any lectures from other countries that have done far less than us, or from those for whom spending thousands of pounds means nothing.

‘Change is difficult, particularly for those who disagree, but remember this: we will still meet our international obligations, we will still meet our domestic targets and we will still get to net zero by 2050.

‘We have solved a problem and offered an unapologetic defence of good conservative common sense.’

Rishi Sunak acknowledged there was an ‘exhaustion with politics’ as he hit out at the last 30 years of political consensus.

The Prime Minister told the party conference: ‘All I have learned is there is an undeniable sense that politics just doesn’t work the way it should.

‘A feeling that Westminster is a broken system and the same goes for Holyrood, Cardiff Bay and Stormont. It isn’t anger, it is an exhaustion with politics, in particular politicians saying things and then nothing ever changing.

‘And you know what? People are right. Politics doesn’t work the way it should. We have had 30 years of a political system which incentivises the easy decision, not the right one.

’30 years of vested interests standing in the way of change, 30 years of rhetorical ambition which achieves little more than a short-term headline.

‘And why? Because our political system is too focused on short-term advantage, not long-term success.’

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said ‘change is difficult, particularly for those who disagree’ in the Tory party conference speech in which he is widely expected to axe the northern leg of HS2.

Grant Shapps leapt to the defence of Suella Braverman today after she faced criticism for suggesting a ‘hurricane’ of mass migration is blowing towards Britain.

The Home Secretary used a Tory conference speech yesterday to claim millions of people could head to Britain, including those who would take jobs off locals and criminals who would groom children.

She also laid into ‘woke’ ideology including trans rights and taking the knee in a hardline address, designed to appeal to the right of the party and position Ms Braverman, 43, as the leading contender to succeed Rishi Sunak .

It provoked a furious response from her political opponents inside and outside the Conservative Party .

But Mr Shapps, the Defence Secretary, used an interview this morning to defend her, pointing out that she herself is a child of immigration, just as he is.

Read the full story from MailOnline’s deputy political editor David Wilcock:

Penny Mordaunt today channelled the spirit of Margaret Thatcher as she issued an impassioned rallying call on the final day of the Tory conference.

The Cabinet minister warned Conservatives they face ‘the fight of our lives’ as she warned that Sir Keir Starmer had ’emboldened militant trade unionism’.

Ms Mordaunt, the Leader of the House of Commons, told the Manchester gathering that Labour wanted to drag Britain back to the ‘battles of the 1980s’.

Read the full story from MailOnline’s political correspondent Greg Heffer here:

Rishi Sunak vowed to ‘fundamentally change our country’ and fix ‘broken’ politics today as he was introduced by wife Akshata for his crucial first Tory conference speech.

The PM put community at the heart of his appeal to voters, saying the Conservatives are the party of the ‘pharmacist’s son and grocer’s daughter’ in a reference to his own background and that of Margaret Thatcher.

Mr Sunak is rallying the party faithful as he wraps up what is likely to be the final Conservative gathering before the country chooses a new government.

Read the full story from MailOnline’s political editor James Tapsfield here:

Shortly before Rishi Sunak took to the stage, his wife Akshata Murty said that she sometimes reminds her husband that he is ‘fighting for his values’ and for ‘this party’s values’.

She told the Tory party conference: ‘Sometimes when the going gets tough, I remind Rishi that he’s fighting for his values, that he’s fighting for this party’s values, knowing that it’s a hard road ahead. That success is hard won.

‘Rishi you know this, you know that doing the right thing for the long-term, even when it’s hard, is the right thing to do. And I hope you also know how proud you make our girls and me every single day.’

As he opened his speech on the main stage, the Prime Minister told his wife: ‘Thank you Akshata for that introduction, and thank you for always being there for me. My wife. Truly the best long-term decision for a brighter future I ever made.’

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has told the conference in Manchester that the Conservative Party ‘will always be the party of enterprise’.

Speaking of his experience working in his parents’ pharmacy, he said: ‘It was a proper family business. We all chipped in. As a teenager I helped deliver prescriptions and do the books.

‘I learnt there the importance of being able to meet your commitments and make good on your promises.

‘My parents are long retired now, but the Sunak pharmacy left me with a lasting respect for every small family business. This Conservative Party, the party of the grocer’s daughter and the pharmacist’s son, will always be the party of enterprise, the party of small business.’

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has now taken to the stage to begin his speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.

Akshata Murty, the Prime Minister’s wife, made a surprise address at Conservative Party Conference ahead of Rishi Sunak’s speech.

Ms Murty told the crowd in Manchester: ‘Yes, you are absolutely right, I am not on the agenda for today. A bit of a surprise addition shall we say and a surprise for my husband too, who has no idea what I am going to say.’

She later added: ‘The reason why I am here is really quite simple, and it is because Rishi and I are each other’s best friends.

‘We are one team and I could not imagine being anywhere else but here today with all of you to show my support to him and to the party.’

Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty said there had been ‘a lot’ about the Prime Minister in the media, adding: ‘Some of it is true. He does love a good rom com, the cheesier the better.’

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is now being introduced by his wife Akshata Murty.

Penny Mordaunt said today that ‘we face the fight of our lives’ in an impassioned speech on the main stage of the Tory Party conference.

The Commons Leader told party members: ‘What I have to say to you today is not for the faint-hearted. We face the fight of our lives and our country needs us again, to stand up and fight. Stand up and fight against the odds, against the polling, against the sneering commentary, against the inevitability of decliners and the despite-Brexiters.’

She went on: ‘We are the party and country that transformed the sick man of Europe into a titan on the global stage, who stood up and fought against militant trade unions and broke their chokehold on Britain.

‘A few brave people with courage and conviction and love of country who thought about the long-term, not short-term popularity, who knew what needed to be done and took on bullies to achieve it. Margaret Thatcher and every single person that stood with her and fought for a better future.’

Ms Mordaunt added: ‘Never forget those who went before us and remember that without a Churchill, you can’t have a Zelensky.’

You can watch Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s speech live via MailOnline’s YouTube channel. Johnny Mercer, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, is currently speaking.

Veterans minister Johnny Mercer joked about his speech at the Conservative Party conference being scheduled before the Prime Minister’s closing address.

‘If it’s any consolation, I was quite surprised they gave me this spot as well,’ he said to great laughter from the audience in Manchester.

Johnny Mercer, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, is now taking the stage at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.

He will be followed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose speech is due to start at 11.45am.

Penny Mordaunt, Leader of the House of Commons, has told the conference that the Conservative Party are ‘in the fight of our lives’.

She added that the UK ‘needs us to stand up again and fight’ – and said: ‘This is the turning point – the point from which we are going to be measured.’

The Daily Mail’s Jason Groves has reported a ‘visible police presence’ inside the conference hall in Manchester ahead of Rishi Sunak’s big speech:

Penny Mordaunt, Leader of the House of Commons, is now speaking at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.

She will be followed at 11.30am by Johnny Mercer, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, and at 11.45am by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

You can watch the speeches live via MailOnline’s YouTube channel:

There are three main speeches at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester this morning, which are all due to take place over the next hour as follows:

11.15am: Penny Mordaunt, Leader of the House of Commons11.30am: Johnny Mercer, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs11.45am Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister

The Birmingham to Manchester leg of High Speed 2 will be abandoned with billions of pounds of savings poured into other transport schemes, Rishi Sunak is expected to announce today.

The Prime Minister is set to use his keynote speech at the Tory conference to end weeks of speculation and confirm his plans for the beleaguered rail line.

Speaking to Conservative members at the conference venue – a converted former rail station in Manchester – Mr Sunak is expected to formally axe the northern leg of HS2.

Read the full story from MailOnline’s political correspondent Greg Heffer here:

Suella Braverman’s rhetoric is ‘certainly no Enoch Powell situation’, her Cabinet colleague Grant Shapps said today as he defended her claim that a ‘hurricane’ of mass migration is coming.

The Defence Secretary said the Home Secretary, whose comments caused unease among some senior Conservatives yesterday, was ‘absolutely correct’ to warn about the scale of the global movement of people.

Mrs Braverman, whose parents came to the UK from Kenya and Mauritius in the 1960s, used her Tory conference speech to say ‘unprecedented’ migration is ‘one of the most powerful forces reshaping our world’.

The Defence Secretary told Times Radio: ‘We’ve already seen a lot of movement – we could see a lot more – a hurricane, as she describes it, of people moving.’

Asked about comparisons that have been made to former Tory minister Mr Powell’s infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech, which was widely blamed for inflaming racial tensions in the 1960s, Mr Shapps said: ‘So many people are from immigrant backgrounds in this country.

‘I think I’m third generation myself – Suella’s first generation – so this is certainly no Enoch Powell situation, is it? To make the very obvious point.’

Journey times between London Euston and Manchester were expected to be cut from around two hours and six minutes today to around one hour and 41 minutes under Phase 1 of HS2 between London and Birmingham, although the initial London terminus will be Old Oak Common in Acton.

In Phase 2a, the high-speed railway was due to be extended from the West Midlands to Crewe. It was then due to be built up to Manchester in Phase 2b, and to the East Midlands in another phase.

Journey times between Euston and Manchester were due to be slashed to just one hour and 11 minutes once Phase 2b was completed.

For the Birmingham-Manchester route, journeys times were due to be reduced from around one hour and 26 minutes today to just 41 minutes under Phase 2b.

There has been uncertainty over whether Old Oak Common in London’s western suburb of Acton will be the permanent terminus in the capital for HS2 or whether the line will reach Euston.

But BBC London’s transport correspondent Tom Edwards has just revealed sources have told him that HS2 Euston is ‘saved’. However, it is still not expected to be finished until 2035. Here is his post on X:

Delegates are queuing up at the Manchester Convention Centre for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s speech on day four of the Conservative Party Conference today:

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has just taken to social media to describe Rishi Sunak as a ‘leader who will make the long-term decisions Britain needs for a brighter future’. Here is a video he has posted on X, formerly known as Twitter:

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to axe plans for HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester today. Here are answers to 11 key questions on the situation:

– Are there doubts about Phase 1 between London and Birmingham?

The only current uncertainty is whether Old Oak Common in London’s western suburbs will be the permanent terminus in the capital or whether the line will reach Euston.

– What was the plan for HS2 north of Birmingham?

In Phase 2a, the high-speed railway was due to be extended from the West Midlands to Crewe. It was then due to be built up to Manchester in Phase 2b, and to the East Midlands in another phase.

– Where will HS2 trains run if Phases 2a and 2b are cut?

If the planned Handsacre Link in Lichfield, Staffordshire, goes ahead, HS2 trains will use it to connect between the new high-speed line and the existing West Coast Main Line (WCML). That means they could serve stations such as Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow. This was always planned to happen temporarily between the completion of Phases 1 and 2b.

– So what is the problem?

One of the main reasons HS2 was designed was to remove intercity trains from the WCML, which has very little spare capacity. This would enable more stopping services and freight trains to run on the WCML. That will not happen north of Birmingham without HS2.

– Does this affect drivers?

The failure to provide more capacity for freight trains means benefits from reductions in road congestion will be lost.

– Has HS2 work started north of Birmingham?

Phase 1 of HS2 includes a 19-mile section of route between Curdworth in Warwickshire and Handsacre, Staffordshire. Some of this work has been paused since March, but much of the construction continues. Recent examples include two bridges being installed near Lichfield, Staffordshire.

– What about Phases 2a and 2b?

Preparatory work for Phase 2a is ongoing, while some residents on the Phase 2b route have already voluntarily sold their homes to HS2 Ltd.

– How much has been spent on Phases 2a and 2b?

In an update to Parliament on June 19, rail minister Huw Merriman said £900 million had been spent on Phase 2a, and £700 million on Phase 2b.

– What is Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR)?

It is a plan to improve east-west rail connections across the North.

– How is it linked to HS2?

NPR and HS2 were being designed so trains would run between the two networks and on to the wider railway system. NPR was set to rely on some infrastructure built by HS2, including for a complicated section through central Manchester. Scrapping HS2 north of Birmingham will put the finances of NPR in doubt.

– What about rail improvements in other parts of the country?

Progress on East West Rail – a scheme to re-establish a rail link between Cambridge and Oxford – is ongoing.

Here are the stories published by MailOnline this morning on the Conservative Party Conference:

Stay with us throughout today for updates from our political team, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s speech coming up in less than two hours at 11.45am.

Nigel Farage has given his clearest hint yet that he could re-join the Tories – but only if they become a ‘real’ right-wing party.

The Brexit champion has been feted by activists as he attended his first conference in a decade – albeit on a media pass in his capacity as a GB News commentator.

Rishi Sunak has suggested that the door is open for Mr Farage to make a comeback – 30 years after he quit in protest at the Maastricht Treaty. However, the ex-MEP made clear that could only happen if there was fundamental change.

Read the full story from MailOnline’s political editor James Tapsfield here:

Top Tory Lee Anderson lashed out at government critics over the state of the economy last night, saying it was ‘nonsense’ that there was poverty in modern Britain.

The party deputy chairman, who has been nicknamed ’30p Lee’  after previous comments on eating on a budget, said while some people were struggling, the country was in a far better state than it was in the 1970s.

Here is the full story from MailOnline’s deputy political editor David Wilcock:

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will give a speech today in which he is expected to defy a backlash from Tory colleagues and northern leaders by abandoning the HS2 high-speed rail route to Manchester as he seeks to portray himself as a radical reformer.

The Prime Minister is widely expected to bring the axe down on the high-speed rail project that was due to connect Manchester with Birmingham, and on to central London, but has so far refused to confirm the plans.

Cabinet minister Grant Shapps today said the public must wait for Mr Sunak’s speech to ‘hear exact confirmation’ on HS2 as he sought to argue it will still run, but indicating not on high-speed rails between Birmingham and Manchester.

Mr Sunak’s predecessor Liz Truss drew big crowds as she demanded immediate tax cuts to ‘make Britain grow again’ a year after she left office after a chaotic 49 days.

Suella Braverman used her conference speech yesterday to warn of a ‘hurricane’ of migrants, comments which caused unease among some senior Conservatives.

The HS2 scheme was given a budget of £55.7billion in 2015 but costs have ballooned, with an estimate of up to £98billion – in 2019 prices – in 2020.

Since then, soaring inflation will have pushed costs even higher.

There are three main speeches at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester taking place today as follows, with the first set to begin in about 90 minutes’ time:

11.15am: Penny Mordaunt, Leader of the House of Commons11.30am: Johnny Mercer, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs11.45am Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister

The Government is to blame for long-running rail strikes which have left travellers facing another day of disruption, according to Aslef’s general secretary Mick Whelan.

Speaking at the picket line outside Euston station in central London this morning, he said: ‘We don’t have a problem in Scotland. We don’t have a problem in Wales.

‘We don’t have a problem in freight or Eurostar or with all the other companies. It is a Westminster political problem caused by Westminster.’

Tory London Assembly chairman Andrew Boff said he feels sure Suella Braverman will not be chosen as the next Conservative leader because he believes in the ‘ultimate common sense of the party’.

Mr Boff, who has been a Conservative for about 50 years, said he has been overwhelmed with messages of support since being kicked out of the Home Secretary’s speech for heckling on Tuesday.

‘I’ve had so many contacts over the past few hours from people who are concerned as I am that we are using this culture war battleground to no good effect at all and we’re actually hurting people,’ he told LBC.

‘And we shouldn’t be doing that as Conservatives. That’s not the Conservative Party I joined and I think we’re better than that.’

Mr Boff said he believed the Tories are still on track for a ‘victory next year’ but urged the party to focus on ‘the important things’ rather than ‘divisive’ topics.

Asked whether he would remain a Conservative member if Ms Braverman becomes the next leader, he replied: ‘Luckily that’s not going to happen… because I believe in the ultimate common sense of the party. Also, I very much hope that Suella Braverman learns about the power of her words and moderates her tone.’

Andy Street, the Conservative West Midlands mayor, has blamed Rishi Sunak for allowing his opponents to accuse him of acting to ‘shaft the North’ by preparing to curtail HS2.

Speaking at a Tory conference fringe event by the Centre for Cities yesterday, Mr Street said: ‘I think they are about to make an incredible political gaffe.

‘Every Labour MP in the North is lining up tomorrow to say … the Tories have come to Manchester to shaft the North.

‘Is that really what we want to offer to our opponents or is there not a better answer?’

Rishi Sunak is expected to defy a backlash from Tory colleagues and northern leaders by abandoning the high-speed rail route to Manchester today as he seeks to portray himself as a radical reformer.

The Prime Minister is expected to use his Conservative conference speech in the northern city to axe the HS2 leg from Birmingham as he criticises 30 years of a ‘broken’ system incentivising ‘the easy decision, not the right one’.

With the Tories having been in charge for the majority of the last three decades, Mr Sunak will pitch himself as the man to ‘fundamentally change our country’ ahead of an election expected next year.

He is widely expected to bring the axe down on the high-speed rail project that was due to connect Manchester with Birmingham, and onto London Euston, but has so far refused to confirm the plans.

Mr Sunak is expected to pledge to reinvest around £36billion of savings into road and rail schemes in the North and Midlands.

But critics, including Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, warned those schemes would not be feasible without key parts of the infrastructure that would have formed HS2.

Cabinet minister Grant Shapps said the public must wait for Mr Sunak’s speech to ‘hear exact confirmation’ on HS2 as he sought to argue it will still run, but indicating not on high-speed rails between Birmingham and Manchester.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that the Conservative Party have treated northerners as ‘second-class citizens’ amid reports the HS2 Birmingham to Manchester leg has been shelved.

Watch his thoughts in this video:

Cabinet minister Grant Shapps suggested ‘tens of billions of pounds’ will be saved by downgrading HS2.

Mr Shapps asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘What else will now be built because we will save these tens of billions of pounds? Those are tough choices, I know the Opposition won’t do that, we will.’

A majority of the British public think Rishi Sunak is doing a bad job delivering on his priorities as the Prime Minister prepares to address his party’s annual conference.

Mr Sunak began the year setting out five priorities of halving inflation, growing the economy, cutting government debt, shortening NHS waiting lists and ‘stopping the boats’.

In a poll of 1,000 British adults, Ipsos UK found widespread dissatisfaction with the Prime Minister’s performance on all five priorities. Dissatisfaction had also grown across the five policy areas since the pollster last asked about them in May.

On halving inflation, 57 per cent said they thought Mr Sunak was doing a bad job, compared to 55 per cent who said the same in May. Only 14 per cent said they thought he was doing a good job, down from 17 per cent.

Some 54 per cent said he was doing a bad job on growing the economy, up from 50 per cent, while 54 per cent said he was doing a bad job on reducing the national debt, up from 49 per cent.

On cutting NHS waiting lists, dissatisfaction has soared with 71 per cent saying the Prime Minister is doing a bad job, compared to 62 per cent in May, while almost two-thirds said he was doing a bad job on stopping small boats crossing the Channel.

Rishi Sunak will use his crucial Tory conference speech today to vow to fix Britain’s ‘broken’ politics – after Suella Braverman ‘s immigration ‘hurricane’ warning split the party.

The Prime Minister is braced for his big moment just before noon as he wraps up what is likely to be the final Conservative gathering before a general election.

Mr Sunak will say he is the leader to end 30 years of failed ‘status quo’ in what is being billed as a highly personal pitch to voters.

Read the full story from MailOnline’s political editor James Tapsfield here:

The Daily Mail’s Andrew Pierce described Suella Braverman’s address to the Conservative Party Conference yesterday as a ‘very brave radical speech’.

He gave his thoughts on ITV’s Good Morning Britain during a discussion with Daily Mirror associate editor Kevin Maguire – who was less than complimentary.

Watch their thoughts in the video below:

The Daily Mail’s City Editor Alex Brummer has described the Government’s handling of HS2 as a ‘farce’:

Grant Shapps spoke in the morning media round today about how HS2 trains are still expected to run to Manchester.

It is believed that the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2 will not be high speed and will use existing West Coast Mainline track.

HS2 is expected to eventually start at London Euston rather than Old Oak Common in Acton – which will likely be the terminus when it first opens – but will not be high speed between Birmingham and Manchester.

The rail line will stop in Manchester, but will switch to use existing track from Birmingham, meaning it will run at a slower pace.

Read the full story on MailOnline:

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said ‘there are other options’ when it was put to him that if the money is not there and if the country cannot afford it, there is no option but to cancel the Manchester to Birmingham leg of HS2.

He told BBC Breakfast: ‘Well, no, there are other options because what they could do is prioritise the northern section, as I’ve said, and we’re prepared to have a conversation about that.

‘We’ve been saying that to the Prime Minister all week, and then perhaps protect the line south from Manchester to Birmingham so that when the country can afford it, it can be completed at a later date.’

And asked if Labour form the next Government, if he thinks there would be a commitment to reinstating that link between Birmingham and Manchester, he said he ‘certainly hopes so’ and he ‘absolutely will be hoping to persuade them to go ahead with it’.

He added: ‘It always seems that people here where I live and where I kind of represent can be treated as second class citizens when it comes to transport. But you know, my message back to all the main parties is, we’re not going to put up with that anymore.

‘It’s not right. It’s not fair. And to do this to this city region and this part of the world when they’re here for the conference, it does say something, doesn’t it, about how politicians think they can treat the north, and it’s just not acceptable.’

Cabinet minister Grant Shapps claimed Manchester will still experience a ‘much faster journey time’ after high-speed rails there are axed by Rishi Sunak.

The Defence Secretary, who was until September last year transport secretary, told BBC Breakfast this morning: ‘HS2 trains will run to Manchester, so they’ll still come into Manchester Piccadilly, they’ll still run to Leeds, there will still be a much faster journey time than there has been in the past.

‘And not just because some of the section will be actually conventional high speed, or new high speed rail, but also because even the older section can have further upgrades to, for example, its digital infrastructure which is the way the signalling works.

‘The third thing is until people hear what the money can be used for and therefore the benefits across large parts of the North, for example, it is very hard to judge the full package.’

Members of the drivers’ union Aslef at 16 train operators in England are on strike today, coinciding with the final day of the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.

Operators warning of no services include Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, Northern and TransPennine Express, which all serve the North West of England.

The only train services listed to and from at Manchester Piccadilly station this morning are those run by Transport for Wales, including routes to and from Cardiff, Holyhead, Llandudno, Swansea, Carmarthen and Manchester Airport.

There are no trains listed as running to or from Manchester Victoria station today.

Here is a photograph taken this morning of commuters standing in front of an information sign detailing strike action at Manchester Piccadilly station:

You can read more about the train strikes in this article on MailOnline here:

A new transport line across the north of England is ‘probably the highest transport priority in the country’ for people in Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham said.

The Greater Manchester mayor told BBC Breakfast: ‘As I understand it, they are going to pull the plug on the possibility of a new line across the north of England.

‘And if you speak to anybody who lives here, they would say that is probably the highest transport priority in the country, because people travelling from Liverpool to Manchester to Leeds and beyond, just suffer daily misery trying to do that journey. And that new line is critically important to the north of England in the rest of this century.

‘So unless they commit to that new line via Manchester Piccadilly with an underground station there going via Bradford and on to Leeds, we will not be satisfied with what they promised and what they’re doing because we’ve not had a commitment to this line in one Conservative manifesto, not two but three Conservative manifestos, since George Osborne first promised the northern powerhouse.’

Cabinet minister Grant Shapps all but confirmed that HS2 will be axed between Birmingham and Manchester by Rishi Sunak in his Conservative conference speech.

The Defence Secretary, who was until September last year transport secretary, told BBC Breakfast this morning: ‘We have to wait for his actual speech to hear exact confirmation.

‘He’s taken a very close careful look at that second part of the HS2 line – I keep reading that HS2 will be scrapped, HS2 will actually run.

‘That second part of the line, the balance that has to be made given that bit has not been built yet, is whether it makes sense to carry on building that given the world has changed.’

Mr Shapps added: ‘A decision like this actually points to something else about Rishi Sunak and the sort of things he’s saying today, which is rather than thinking about things in the very short-term he’s prepared to take a look at difficult decisions, things like should we carry on because that’s what we were doing even though the world’s changed and do the hard things.

‘It’s much harder to change tracks on something like this when you see the world’s changed than it is just to plough on, it will attract criticism when you do these things. He’s prepared to take those long-term difficult decisions because he thinks we can get to a bright future by doing them.’

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said the latest proposal to cut the Manchester to Birmingham leg of HS2 is ‘not a workable plan’ and there is ‘huge frustration and growing anger in Greater Manchester’.

He told BBC Breakfast: ‘It’s so frustrating. It just proves there’s still so many people in politics, many of them in the Tory party, that think they can treat the north of England differently to the way they treat other parts of the country it’s just so wrong.

‘I’ve been in politics 30 years, I’ve never seen a party come to a conference and leave an axe hanging over the place they’re in for the whole week. And then actually drop it on that place.

‘I just don’t think it’s fair to people in Greater Manchester to do this and the plan that they’re putting forward, that we’ve only seen briefed overnight because we haven’t even been told what it is, takes trains off HS2 at Birmingham and puts them on the existing tracks of the West Coast Mainline that just simply isn’t going to work. It’s not a workable plan and you know, you can understand why there is just huge frustration and indeed growing anger in Greater Manchester about this.’

The Daily Mail’s front page today carries praise from Quentin Letts for Suella Braverman’s speech yesterday, in which he describes the Home Secretary as ‘a tornado making a determined path towards polite conventions, ripping elite etiquette from its moorings’:

There was no early night for Rishi Sunak before his debut conference speech as leader today, reports MailOnline’s deputy political editor DAVID WILCOCK.

He was out and about at parties at the Midland Hotel, the social centre point of the event in Manchester.

And in between the Prime Minister – who doesn’t drink – was mobbed by well-refreshed party members as he did a walkabout in the hotel bar.

Nigel Farage fever swept Tory conference yesterday as he posed for selfies with activists – but dismissed talk of rejoining.

Rishi Sunak hinted that the door is open for the Brexit champion to make a comeback after he was the surprise hit of the gathering in Manchester.

The Prime Minister insisted the party is a ‘broad church’ and welcomed anyone who shares ‘our values’ when quizzed on the Brexit champion rejoining.

But the ex-MEP quickly poured cold water on the idea, condemning the Conservatives for hiking taxes and failing to tackle immigration.

Read the full story on MailOnline here:

The Tory London assembly chair was dramatically escorted out of Suella Braverman’s speech yesterday after heckling her comments on gender.

Andrew Boff was dragged out of the hall in Manchester after hitting out at the Home Secretary for talking ‘trash’ about ‘gender ideology’.

He started complaining after Ms Braverman said ministers must challenge the ‘poison’ of concepts such as white privilege and gender ideology.

Read the full story from MailOnline’s political editor James Tapsfield here:

Nationalism is ‘in retreat’ in Scotland and the Union is stronger under the current Tory Government, Michael Gove declared yesterday.

The Levelling Up Secretary told the Conservative conference that the UK is now more secure amid the crisis engulfing the SNP.

He also hailed this week’s announcement of a UK-wide fund to boost town centres, which will see £20million each given to seven Scottish councils over the next decade.

Read the full story from the Scottish Daily Mail here:

Suella Braverman’s powerful and thought-provoking speech in Washington last week on clamping down on mass migration had cossetted liberals spluttering into their teacups in outrage.

If any tuned in to the Home Secretary’s address to the Tory party conference, they’d have been advised to first put down their fine china. This was her previous oratory shot through with steroids.

Read the full DAILY MAIL COMMENT piece by clicking below:

Suella Braverman ignited a new war on woke yesterday – vowing that only the Tories could stop political correctness strangling Britain.

The Home Secretary told the Tory party conference the country would ‘go properly woke’ under a Labour government.

To a packed auditorium in Manchester, she mocked ‘Keir ‘take the knee’ Starmer’, predicting that wokery would ‘run riot’ if he won the keys to No 10.

Read the full story from the Daily Mail’s home affairs editor David Barrett here:

Plenty of Tory MPs were left outraged after Liz Truss, the 49-day PM, upstaged ministers with a carefully choreographed call for tax cuts at conference earlier in the week, writes ANDREW PIERCE.

But Truss has been doing worse than simply stealing headlines. Over the summer, she launched her so- called ‘Growth Commission’, with the backing of international economists, in an attempt to restore some credibility to her battered reputation.

The talk in the conference bars is that 64 Tory MPs have now joined the group – including some serving ministers and four former Cabinet ministers such as Dame Priti Patel.

Read the full story by ANDREW PIERCE on MailOnline here:

Predictable voices will hate it, writes QUENTIN LETTS. But even they must admit that Sou’wester Sue was, as they say in twister corridor in Kansas , one heck of a blow.

What a wig-lifter of a speech. If Michael Fabricant was there, his topknot must have been blown all the way to Bolton.

Suella Braverman described an immigration ‘hurricane’ but she herself was a tornado making a determined path towards polite conventions, ripping elite etiquette from its moorings. The Establishment will be appalled. Tory activists (bar one) loved it.

Read the full article by QUENTIN LETTS on MailOnline here:

Rishi Sunak will today vow to end 30 years of failed ‘status quo’ politics – as he takes the axe to HS2 and unveils billions for new transport projects in the North.

The Prime Minister will use the most important speech of his premiership to paint himself as an agent of change who is willing to make tough decisions in the country’s long-term interests.

He will acknowledge that Westminster politics is ‘broken’ and declare a mission to ‘fundamentally change our country’.

Read the full story from the Daily Mail’s Jason Groves and David Churchill here:

Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s rhetoric is ‘certainly no Enoch Powell situation’, her Cabinet colleague Grant Shapps said as he defended her claim that a ‘hurricane’ of mass migration is coming.

The Defence Secretary told Times Radio: ‘She makes the absolutely correct point we’ve already seen a lot of movement… we could see a lot more, a hurricane, as she describes it, of people moving.’

Asked about comparisons which have been made to Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech, he said: ‘So many people are from immigrant backgrounds in this country. I think I’m third generation myself… Suella’s first generation, her parents came over in the 60s. So this is certainly no Enoch Powell situation, is it, to make the very obvious point.’

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps suggested there may be more ‘worthwhile’ ways of spending money than on completing the Manchester to Birmingham leg of HS2.

Speaking to GB News this morning, he said there had been a ‘change in travel patterns’ since the pandemic and suggested there could be ‘fantastic levelling opportunity’ from diverting funding to other projects.

Asked whether ministers were turning their back on levelling up by scrapping part of the planned rail line, Mr Shapps said: ‘It absolutely is not turning our back at all.

‘In fact, of course, we need to wait for the Prime Minister’s speech. If he were to scrap the second leg of HS2… and take that money, you can’t really judge it without finding out where that money is going to be spent because that could actually have a fantastic levelling up opportunity.

‘Billions of pounds, tens of billions of pounds, so what could that be spent on?

‘And perhaps there are things which are worthwhile doing more than building a high-speed rail line given Covid, given what’s happened, given the change in travel patterns.’

Here is the schedule for the morning media round today:

6.20am: Northern Powerhouse Partnership chief executive Henri Murison, LBC6.45am: Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, GB News7.00am: Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, Times Radio7.10am: Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, BBC Breakfast7.20am: Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, Sky News7.30am: Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, BBC Breakfast8.10am: Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, ITV’s Good Morning Britain8.30am: Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, ITV’s Good Morning Britain8.35am: Andrew Boff, London Assembly chair who was ejected from the conference hall during Suella Braverman’s speech, LBC

The main speeches at the Conservative Party Conference today are as follows:

11.15am: Penny Mordaunt, Leader of the House of Commons

11.30am: Johnny Mercer, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs

11.45am Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister

Good morning and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage of the final day of the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.

Later, Rishi Sunak will rail against post-Thatcher politics and attempt to portray himself as a radical reformer as he faced a backlash for abandoning the northern leg of HS2.

The Prime Minister will use his speech to try to convince the public he will ‘fundamentally change the country’ and fix Westminster’s ‘broken system’.

Stay with our liveblog throughout today for all the updates.