Rishi Sunak has formally announced he has cancelled the planned HS2 rail link from Birmingham to Manchester, also unveiling a new post-16 educational qualification in his speech to the Conservative party conference.
In a speech otherwise largely devoid of new policy, Sunak nonetheless tried to present himself – the fifth Tory prime minister in 13 unbroken years of the party’s rule – as the only option for change.
“At the next election the choice that people face is bigger than party politics. Do we want a government committed to making long-term decisions, prepared to be radical in the face of challenges and to take on vested interests, or do we want to stand still and quietly accept more of the same?” the prime minister said.
“You either think this country needs to change, or you don’t. And if you do, you should stand with me and every person in this hall, you should stand with the Conservatives.”
On HS2, Sunak said the government would invest £36bn saved from HS2 in other transport projects across the whole country – including a number of road schemes.
HS2 had overrun in costs and the plans as they stood no longer made economic sense, Sunak said, adding: “The facts have changed, and the right thing to do when the facts change is to have the courage to change direction.”
In the one unheralded announcement, Sunak announced a new regime for post-16 school education, saying he would replace A-levels and T-levels with a new qualification called the advanced British standard, where all students would study maths and English to the age of 18 and would take five different subjects.
Up to £30,000 in tax-free bonuses would be offered to those teaching key subjects.
“This will finally deliver on the promise of parity of esteem between academic and technical education,” Sunak said. “Second, we will raise the floor, ensuring that our children leave school literate and numerate.”
In one other change that was trailed in advance – and one that could prove unpopular with some free-market Conservatives – Sunak announced a plan for a New Zealand-style anti-smoking law to raise the minimum age for buying tobacco by a year each year.
“That means a 14-year-old today will never legally be sold a cigarette and that they and their generation can grow up smoke-free,” he said. This would, he added, only take place after a free vote in the Commons, without any party-based whipping.
The speech otherwise stuck to largely familiar Conservative themes such as immigration, crime, the unions and the benefits system, plus a section on culture war themes that included a strong attack on trans rights.
As part of the effort to present himself as a bringer of change, Sunak said the HS2 cancellation would be a net positive for transport. All the money earmarked for the project would be spent on other transport projects such as road upgrades, east-west rail links and public transport.
Callout
“As a result of the decision we’re taking today, every region outside of London will receive the same or more government investment than they would have done under HS2 with quicker results,” he said.
This would include quicker links from Manchester to Bradford or Sheffield, £12bn on a Manchester to Liverpool link and a Midlands rail hub, as well as building new road capacity in a series of areas.
It remains to be seen, however, how the decision will land, with Andy Street, the Conservative mayor for the West Midlands, understood to be considering quitting his job in protest at the plan. Birmingham city council called the decision “yet another kick in the teeth” for the city, adding: “This short-sighted decision will hold back our city and region for decades.”
The HS2 link would still have a terminus at Euston in London, Sunak said. He announced that the station rebuild would be taken out of the hands of the HS2 organisation and handed to the new Euston Development Zone.
Elsewhere in the speech, Sunak castigated what he said were 30 years of short-termism, he said voters were experiencing “exhaustion with politics”. “Our mission is to fundamentally change our country,” he said. “If the country is to change then it will only be us who can deliver it.”
Keir Starmer and Labour were, Sunak said, part of the problem, calling the opposition leader “the walking definition of the 30-year political status quo I am here to end”.
In a speech low on surprises, Sunak made a brief reference to “culture war” issues, with an attack on transgender activism, and said he would propose full-life jail terms for sexual and sadistic murders.
He also reiterated plans to make it harder for people to claim sickness or disability benefits. “We must end the national scandal where our benefits system declares that more than 2 million people of working age are incapable of actually doing any,” Sunak said.
