After spending most of his conference refusing to say much at all, Rishi Sunak used his speech to make three big policy announcements as he seeks to pitch himself as the change candidate. The first was HS2, with Sunak confirming that the government will axe the planned Manchester leg. Sunak said he would spend the £36 billion saved to fund other rail, road and bus projects across the country – so all areas either receive as much in funding as they would have done or more.
When announcing this, the Prime Minister mentioned the West Midlands mayor Andy Street several times, saying that he looked forward to working with Street on other infrastructure projects. Given Street has made his displeasure well known on the issue and even suggested he could quit, this seemed as much a plea to Street not to resign in protest.
The phased ban on smoking is the most divisive policy within the Tory party
The next announcement was on smoking – with Sunak confirming that he plans to bring in a phased ban on smoking, in the style of the New Zealand ban.
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