As the Liberal Democrats attempt to seize the political agenda at their annual conference in Bournemouth, Rishi Sunak is facing a series of decisions on how far to go with his policy shake-up. Last week, he diluted a number of the UK’s net zero commitments – including delaying the ban on petrol cars by five years. Now, other policy changes are planned as the Prime Minister attempts to pitch himself as the minister for hard truths, a politician who will do things differently by being up front about trade-offs.
The snag is that such changes have the potential to be divisive with Sunak’s own side. First up, the HS2 Birmingham-Manchester line. Ministers are considering scrapping the HS2 rail link to Manchester as a result of the soaring costs. The last official estimate on HS2 costs added up to about £71 billion but just last week Jeremy Hunt suggested the costs were getting ‘totally out of control’.
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