Sunak says he ‘won’t be rushed’ into HS2 decision as agenda blown off track – live

Rishi Sunak got his own catchphrase “spades in the ground” wrong as he denied giving up on HS2 stretch to Manchester in a heated breakfast interview.

Mr Sunak said: “The way I approach this job I take a look at the facts and take the time to make the right decision on behalf of the country.”

Asked on BBC Breakfast if he had given up on the railway, he said: “Absolutely not, we have got spades on the ground on HS2 as we speak.”

He added: “I know there is lots of speculation. I’m not going to be forced into a premature decision because it will be good for someone’s TV programme. I want to make the right decision for the country.

“This is an enormous amount of people’s money, taxpayer’s money, people watching it’sbillions of pounds.”

Vandalism on the railway can result in a life sentence and an unlimited fine for the perpetrator. But the act of national vandalism that is the decision to disconnect the North completely from HS2 will mean a life sentence of inadequate rail services for tens of millions of travellers across England, Wales and Scotland.

No serious figure in the rail industry can believe what the government is contemplating: ripping up the primary function of HS2. The line as conceived (and as recently as two weeks ago, guaranteed by a future Labour government) is designed to connect Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Nottingham with Birmingham at 21st-century speeds.

The onward link to London is intended to provide vital extra capacity on all north-south services, with the valuable side effects of slashing journey times and tempting travellers from road to rail, our travel correspondent, Simon Calder writes.

Andy Burnham has described reports that the Manchester leg of HS2 will be shelved as “profoundly depressing”.

Speaking at a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference, the Manchester mayor said: “This will be remembered as the conference when they pulled the plug on us.

“What gives them the right to treat people here in Greater Manchester and the north of England as second-class citizens? We’re growing faster than the UK economy. We’re a success story and then, behind you, you have got people working against you.”

Mr Burnham added: “If this railway goes from outer London through the Home Counties and ends up in Birmingham, it will be a monument of the places Whitehall cares about.”

Concluding his keynote speech earlier at the Tory conference, chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: “It’s easy to support higher growth, better public services and lower taxes. Harder to make it happen.

“In Britain today, there’s only one party prepared to make those difficult decisions.

“Our party and our Prime Minister, whose diligence and tenacity have given us the Windsor Framework, the Atlantic Declaration, the Trans Pacific trade deal, and the NHS workforce plan, whose own life story shows just what’s possible with education, aspiration and hard work.

“His story and our story: more growth, more jobs, more doctors, more nurses, better schools, less poverty, less crime.

“It’s time to roll up our sleeves, take on the declinists and watch the British economy prove the doubters wrong.”

Rishi Sunak is set to use the Tory party conference to confirm he has scrapped the northern leg of HS2 – weeks after The Independent revealed he had held secret talks about axeing the project.

The Independent understands that the route north of Birmingham will be shelved for seven years in a bid to ditch the project in the long term – a move that has sparked fury among northern mayors and business bosses.

A source close to government discussions said Mr Sunak was most likely to make the announcement in his speech on Wednesday, though it could now be brought forward to Tuesday.

The Independent understands that the decision to leave open the possibility that HS2 could be revived by the end of the decade was only made after this publication’s initial exclusive provoked a furious backlash and spooked No 10.

The move completely overshadowed the second day of the party’s conference in Manchester, with chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s speech left largely ignored.

Our politics and policy correspondents Adam Forrest and Jon Stone have the full report:

Scrapping HS2’s northern leg would send a message to international investors that the UK “can’t be relied on” to see commitments through, Tory foreign affairs committee chair Alicia Kearns has told Sky News.

“It is difficult because from everything you see – you know, I haven’t been told anything as a Conservative MP – but it does feel like the writing’s on the wall. I see it from both sides.

“Look, from my perspective, they started the building at the wrong end of the country. The fact the costs just keep getting out of control, which I think there’s a lot of questions for the management company there, all the way through to just some of the ways it has been handled.

“But at the same time, the message it sends to international investors – that once we commit to something we can’t be relied on to see that commitment through – I think that’s a real issue there, and I agree entirely.

“It doesn’t affect my constituency, but there are real concerns.”

Grappling with smartphones is one of the “biggest issues” facing teachers, education secretary Gillian Keegan has said as she pushed for devices to be banned in schools.

Addressing the Conservative Party conference on Monday afternoon, Ms Keegan said: “Today, one of the biggest issues facing children and teachers is grappling with the impact of smartphones in our schools.

“The distraction, the disruption, the bullying. We know that teachers are struggling with their impact and we know that they need support.

“So, today we are recognising the amazing work that many schools have done in banning mobile phones and we are announcing that we will change guidance so that all schools will follow their lead.”

But Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said: “If the government introduces blanket bans that are unenforceable, this will make the behaviour crisis worse, not better.”

Our columnist and former political editor Andrew Grice has this analysis:

“Rishi has been prime minister for almost a year, but we still don’t know what he stands for,” said one senior Conservative MP who backed Rishi Sunak for the party leadership. “He cannot wait a moment longer to set out what ‘Sunakism’ is and what another five years of it would mean.”

That even Sunak’s supporters are getting impatient is a worrying sign his first Tory conference as party leader gets under way.

What’s interesting is that the prime minister’s inner circle does not dispute this diagnosis; they want the conference to provide booster rockets to the relaunch he began 10 days ago by ditching some net zero measures.

“I have made my decision: we are going to change,” Sunak said then.

The conference, with a slogan of “long-term decisions for a brighter future” might bring announcements on crime, education and public service reforms to draw new “dividing lines” with Labour. Crucially, Sunak will need to offer voters a sense of hope and better times ahead after the cost-of-living crisis.

Health secretary Steve Barclay will announce three new medical schools to boost the NHS workforce – as doctors across England take their largest strike action so far, with a three-day walkout on Monday leaving Chriastmas Day-levels of cover in hospitals.

Mr Barclay will announce new medical schools at the University of Worcester, the University of Chester and Brunel University in Uxbridge, west London. They will each offer at least 50 undergraduate places a year from September 2024.

Existing medical schools will also offer at least 55 more places from that date, with 35 more at the University of Central Lancashire and 20 at Edge Hill University.

It is part of a plan to double the number of medical school places to 15,000 by 2031.

There are “plenty of young people” privately renting their homes who are “not weed-smoking bad people” or in “crack dens” and “smashing up the neighbourhood”, housing minister Rachel Maclean has said as she defended strengthening renters’ rights.

Speaking at a fringe conference event hosted by the Bright Blue think tank and the National Residential Landlords Association, the minister was addressing concerns some landlords have over the Renters (Reform) Bill, which seeks to strengthen protections for renters and would abolish section 21 so-called no-fault evictions.

She said: “A lot of people have said to me, ‘Rachel, why are you doing this? It’s not Conservative. There’s going to be nobody, no Conservative voters are going to vote for this’. And I say to them … I have got four children, all of whom are in their late 20s and 30s, they are all professionals, they are all earning, they all vote Conservative.

“Three of them live in the PRS (private rented sector) in London, one lives in the PRS in Worcester. I’m afraid it’s absolutely rubbish to say that these are not Conservative voters.”

She added: “There are plenty of young people who are in the PRS who are not weed-smoking bad people, you know, in gangs and, you know, crack dens and everything else … and smashing up the neighbourhood. There’s lots of decent people, hard-working people in the PRS, and we need to do the right thing for them.”