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. It would come in as a policy in which 14-year-olds would be prevented from ever buying cigarettes (legally). It means a teen who is 15 years old at the time of the policy being enacted would be allowed to buy cigarettes for the rest of their life but their younger 14-year-old classmate would never be. There will be a free vote on the legislation in parliament. There will also be a consultation on vaping and, in Sunak’s words, how to stop it becoming an ‘endemic’ problem for youngsters.
This is the most divisive policy within the Tory party. It has already been criticised by the Institute for Economic Affairs as ‘hideously illiberal’. Polling suggests it is popular with the general public. It means Sunak’s policy pivot is more complicated than a rightward pivot – some of this will be the hardest to swallow for his own party. Meanwhile, Labour MPs are likely to support it, meaning Sunak should have the votes regardless.
The final big shift is on education. Sunak plans to scrap A-levels in favour of a UK version of an international baccalaureate – titled the ‘advanced British standard’. This would mean that students don’t have to specialise so early. However, this policy will take time to implement and require consultation with the sector so it will really only come into effect should Sunak win the next election.
So, on that point, have the chances of Sunak turning around his party’s fortunes risen on the back of that speech? Sunak chose to announce all three together – despite it meaning HS2 speculation dominated the entire conference – in a bid to make a bang that means voters notice and look at him differently.
In the coming hours, he’ll discover whether he has struck a balance that means he will keep his West Midlands mayor and whether the Libertarian wing of the party will go along with the smoking ban. As for voters, the risk is that on HS2 it looks like more Tory U-turns as opposed to his new pitch. No. 10 hope that Starmer will look cautious by comparison when he stands up to speak next Tuesday at Labour’s conference in Liverpool.
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