Live: Rishi Sunak scraps HS2 extension in Tory conference speech

Rishi Sunak has confirmed that the HS2 line between Birmingham and Manchester will be scrapped. The Prime Minister said he was ending the ‘long-running saga’ and vowed to invest the money saved – £36 billion – ‘in hundreds of new transport and infrastructure’ projects. The PM also used his Tory conference speech to unveil a crackdown on smoking. He also announced a new qualification to replace A levels.

• Rishi Sunak describes HS2 as ‘the ultimate example of the old consensus’. The PM says its costs have ‘more than doubled’. ‘The economic case (for building HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester) has massively weakened,’ he adds.

• The PM pledges, as expected, to raise the smoking age by one year, every single year, to create a smoking free UK over the next 70 years. It means a 14-year-old today will never be able to buy cigarettes legally. The availability of flavoured vapes for youngsters will also be restricted. On Coffee House, Andrew Tettenborn says the plan is full of holes.
• Sunak says HS2 will travel all the way to Euston station in London. The PM also announces a flurry of transport announcements, including a Midlands Rail Hub, connecting 50 stations, extending the West Midlands Metro, building the Leeds tram and upgrading the A1, the A2, the A5, the M6.
• The PM announces a new qualification called the ‘Advanced British Standard’, which, he says, will ‘bring together A-levels and T-levels into a new, single qualification for our school leavers’.
• Sunak proposes full-life terms for ‘sexual and sadistic murders’. ‘We are going to change this country and that means ‘life means life’. That shouldn’t be a controversial position,’ he tells Tory conference.
• The Tory leader opens his speech by attacking Labour. Sunak says: ‘You can never trust Labour with our country’s security’, as he criticises Keir Starmer for sitting in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet. Sunak says Starmer is making a ‘bet on people’s apathy’ in its bid to win power.
• The Prime Minister’s warm-up act was his wife, Akshata Murty. Murty tells the conference in Manchester that ‘Rishi cares deeply about this party, and the values that underpin it’.