The second day of the Conservative Party conference has been overshadowed by furious row over Rishi Sunak’s plans to delay the Manchester leg of HS2 – just weeks after The Independent first revealed secret talks between him and chancellor Jeremy Hunt to scrap the route.
The decision to delay the leg by seven years means plans for the rail line to stretch beyond Birmingham have been kicked into the long grass, The Independent understands, in a move that has sparked fury among northern business leaders and politicians, including the most senior Tory outside Westminster, Andy Street.
The West Midlands mayor called an extraordinary impromptu press conference on Monday evening, in which he urged the PM not to “cancel the future”, and refused to rule out resigning over the matter.
Meanwhile, further infighting – spearheaded by his brief predecessor Liz Truss – threatened to put Mr Sunak’s majority at risk, as some 60 Tory MPs signed up to her pro-growth group of rebels demanding tax reductions this year to “Make Britain Grow Again”.
In Focus | Sunak is in a race against time to show what he stands for
Our columnist and former political editor Andrew Grice has this analysis:
“Rishi has been prime minister for almost a year, but we still don’t know what he stands for,” said one senior Conservative MP who backed Rishi Sunak for the party leadership. “He cannot wait a moment longer to set out what ‘Sunakism’ is and what another five years of it would mean.”
That even Sunak’s supporters are getting impatient is a worrying sign his first Tory conference as party leader gets under way.
What’s interesting is that the prime minister’s inner circle does not dispute this diagnosis; they want the conference to provide booster rockets to the relaunch he began 10 days ago by ditching some net zero measures.
“I have made my decision: we are going to change,” Sunak said then.
The conference, with a slogan of “long-term decisions for a brighter future” might bring announcements on crime, education and public service reforms to draw new “dividing lines” with Labour. Crucially, Sunak will need to offer voters a sense of hope and better times ahead after the cost-of-living crisis.
Barclay to announce new medical schools – as doctors’ strike continues
Health secretary Steve Barclay will announce three new medical schools to boost the NHS workforce – as doctors across England take their largest strike action so far, with a three-day walkout on Monday leaving Chriastmas Day-levels of cover in hospitals.
Mr Barclay will announce new medical schools at the University of Worcester, the University of Chester and Brunel University in Uxbridge, west London. They will each offer at least 50 undergraduate places a year from September 2024.
Existing medical schools will also offer at least 55 more places from that date, with 35 more at the University of Central Lancashire and 20 at Edge Hill University.
It is part of a plan to double the number of medical school places to 15,000 by 2031.
Plenty of private renters are ‘not weed-smoking bad people’ in ‘crack dens’, says housing minister
There are “plenty of young people” privately renting their homes who are “not weed-smoking bad people” or in “crack dens” and “smashing up the neighbourhood”, housing minister Rachel Maclean has said as she defended strengthening renters’ rights.
Speaking at a fringe conference event hosted by the Bright Blue think tank and the National Residential Landlords Association, the minister was addressing concerns some landlords have over the Renters (Reform) Bill, which seeks to strengthen protections for renters and would abolish section 21 so-called no-fault evictions.
She said: “A lot of people have said to me, ‘Rachel, why are you doing this? It’s not Conservative. There’s going to be nobody, no Conservative voters are going to vote for this’. And I say to them … I have got four children, all of whom are in their late 20s and 30s, they are all professionals, they are all earning, they all vote Conservative.
“Three of them live in the PRS (private rented sector) in London, one lives in the PRS in Worcester. I’m afraid it’s absolutely rubbish to say that these are not Conservative voters.”
She added: “There are plenty of young people who are in the PRS who are not weed-smoking bad people, you know, in gangs and, you know, crack dens and everything else … and smashing up the neighbourhood. There’s lots of decent people, hard-working people in the PRS, and we need to do the right thing for them.”
Tory grassroots would vote Farage in as party leader given the choice, journalist suggests
The founder of the ConservativeHome website has said he is “convinced” that the Tory grassroots would vote for Nigel Farage as party leader if they had the choice.
‘Andy Burnham for Prime Minister’ sign displayed on business near Tory conference
Andy Burnham’s intervention on HS2 today appears to have been well-received by some situated close to the Tory Party conference…
Watch: Liz Truss says ‘we need more GB News’ during Tory Party conference speech
‘Message on HS2 is clear’, says Manchester council chief
The leader of Manchester City Council, Bev Craig, has told ministers that the “message is clear” on HS2.
She said: “The offer of a conversation is still there. The government, the prime minister and the ministers leading on the decisions need to reach out to us and need to have that conversation, because we won’t be prepared to sit back time and time again, and hear promise after promise, where ultimately it’s our residents at the receiving end and our residents that are being let down.
“So, the message is clear. You can’t govern a country through briefings on social media. Get in touch, pick up the phone, send an email. Our door’s open.”
Theresa May warns against interpreting Uxbridge by-election result as ‘anti-environment’ vote
Former prime minister Theresa May offered a strong defence of net zero policies as she warned her party not to interpret last summer’s Uxbridge by-election as an “anti-environment” vote.
Speaking at a Conservative Environment Network reception in Manchester, she said: “A lot has been made of the result of the Uxbridge by-election. That was not won on an anti-environment ticket. It was won on an anti-Ulez ticket.
“We must ensure that we are keeping – keeping – our commitment to net zero, as the Government is. We recognise and must understand that the worst thing that could happen would be to give Labour the lead on net zero.
“That’s not in our party’s interest. But, more than that, it is not in the interest of this country.”
‘Laughable’ to suggest government can’t build rail line from London to Manchester, says Tory mayor
West Midlands mayor Andy Street has said it is “laughable” to suggest that the government cannot build a railway from London to Manchester.
“This is a project that I think is of national significance for generations. We’ve argued for it for years and indeed successive governments have supported it,” the Tory mayor told Sky News.
“And now the prime minister could be on the edge of scrapping it. I get he’s got a really, really big problem. The costs are significantly above-budget, you might even say out of control. But that does not need to lead to scrapping.
Citing a “new offer” by the private sector he said: “At the moment this is being done very much as a statist project, all the costs are taken by the public Exchequor, it’s all on the balance sheet.
“That’s not necessarily how it has to be – we’ve not brought in the expertise from the private sector, who say ‘we can reduce this cost, we can potentially get it paid for in other ways potentially’. That’s how it’s done in other countries.”
He added: “As a G7 country, you’re telling me we can’t build a railway from London to Manchester? It’s laughable, frankly.”
Politics Explained | The race to replace Rishi Sunak has begun. Who is in the running?
Barring some kind of cataclysmic disaster this week, Rishi Sunak seems safe as Conservative leader. Even if he delivers a lacklustre speech, or gets heckled, his position should be assured this close to a general election.
Theresa May, whose cough-addled oration in 2017 was delivered against a disintegrating backdrop and interrupted by a prankster handing her a P45, managed to hang on for another 18 months.
Despite wild talk about votes of confidence, and Priti Patel placing herself at the head of a grassroots “peasants’ revolt”, the prime minister is not likely to be going anywhere quite yet. But that doesn’t mean that others aren’t looking to the post-Sunak future, and going on manoeuvres…
Our associate editor Sean O’Grady takes a look at who’s jostling:
