Quote of the day
If you tell the international investment community you are going to do something, you bloody well have to stick to your word.
Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, shows his annoyance at a fringe event as the prime minister prepares to confirm the scrapping of HS2’s northern leg.
Row of the day
Perhaps not the most fiery row, but one that highlights the ideological fissure between the centre and right of the party. Several moderates, including the security minister, Tom Tugendhat, and the international development minister, Andrew Mitchell, hit back at calls from the likes of Suella Braverman and Kemi Badenoch for the UK to leave the European convention on human rights (ECHR).
Tugendhat was particularly scathing about the lack of answers from those who wanted to leave about how to “address the gaps that they create”, for example with Northern Ireland’s Good Friday agreement, which is dependent on the ECHR.
He told Times Radio:
I’m just suggesting these are really big questions and don’t throw around words unless you can answer the questions. And so what we need to do is make sure if you’re looking at the future in a different way, that’s fine. Set out the questions. Set out the answers.
Tweet of the day
Adam Bienkov from Byline Times finds a less-than-packed main hall for the speech of the culture secretary, Lucy Frazer.
"It's fantastic to be here," the Culture Secretary tells a very sparse Conservative Party conference hall. Not many party members seem to agree. #CPC2023 pic.twitter.com/0YGMI7SgB3
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) October 2, 2023
Tuesday’s highlights
In a relatively low-key day on the main stage, the standouts are Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, just before lunch, and Braverman, the home secretary, to close the day – the former because he is one of the few remaining ministers who can give a decent speech; the latter because she is one of several ministers who can veer wildly from their brief, and even from government policy.
In policy terms, expect more speculation, debate and anger – and maybe even a confirmed decision – on HS2. A party surely cannot spend an entire conference in a city waiting to hear if they are going to get a long-promised high speed rail line and not tell them. Or maybe it can?
