Rishi Sunak declared on Wednesday “it is time for a change” in Britain with landmark education, health and transport reforms which he hopes will put him on track to pull off a general election victory against the odds.
The Prime Minister unveiled three major blueprints to replace A-levels with a new broader Advanced British Standard, to ban smoking and to plough tens of billions more into levelling-up, funded by controversially axing the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the HS2 high-speed rail line.
In a rare intervention, David Cameron said the decision to axe the northern leg of HS2 was “the wrong one” and added “ in years to come I suspect many will look back at today’s announcement and wonder how this once-in-a-generation opportunity was lost.”
Boris Johnson endorsed Mr Cameron’s message, simply saying “I agree.”
Mr Sunak also announced a huge redevelopment plan for Euston, where the high-speed line will end, aimed at creating up to 10,000 new homes.
In his keynote address to the Conservatives’ annual rally in Manchester, Mr Sunak sought to portray himself as a radical reformer willing to take tough decisions which he argued had been ducked by past prime ministers for decades.
“Be in no doubt: It is time for a change,” he told the Tory party faithful. “And we are it.”
Doubling down on this key theme, he stressed: “We will give the country what it so sorely needs, and yet too often has been denied.
“A government prepared to make long-term decisions so that we can build a brighter future — for everyone.”
In what will be seen as a major gamble, as the Tories seek to close Labour’s double-digit poll lead and seize the mantle of the “party of change” despite being in power for 13 years, Mr Sunak:
- Axed the Birmingham to Manchester HS2 line to save £36 billion, with high-speed trains running on existing lines over this section, with better signalling to speed up journeys, although they will not be as fast as under the full previously planned scheme. The move has been slammed by Greater Manchester Labour mayor Andy Burnham, Birmingham Tory mayor Andy Street and some businesses.
- The Government said that billions saved from scaling back HS2 will be swiftly ploughed into levelling-up and other transport projects.
- New leadership will be brought in tasked with attracting private investment to build a new Euston station for HS2, and aiming to release £6.5 billion to invest in projects including up to 10,000 new homes for the area. A development corporation will be set up, as Margaret Thatcher did for the London Docklands, with special powers to develop thousands of homes. It will be modelled on the success of the Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms development.
- A-levels will be replaced with a new broader Advanced British Standard, which will take around a decade to bring in, so pupils in primary school now will be the first to take it. Britain currently is among the countries with the most specialisation in education at the 16 to 19-year-old age group
- Mr Sunak unveiled a £600 million education package, including bonuses for teachers in key subjects where retention is an issue, and to pursue the focus on numeracy and literacy throughout school, while also seeking to raise recognition of technical qualifications.
- Smoking will be gradually banned, with the age at which people can buy cigarettes being ratcheted up, with the aim of preventing nearly half a million cancer deaths by 2030.
As Mr Sunak unveiled his vision for Britain, he also recollected on how his family came to the country in the Sixties. He told delegates how his grandfather had visited him in Parliament and they stood in Westminster Hall “on that floor which Disraeli and Churchill had walked across so many times”.
He explained: “My grandfather got out his mobile phone and made a quick call. I was a new MP and wasn’t quite sure whether mobile phones were allowed here.
“I was like, ‘Nanaji, can’t this wait?’ He replied that he was calling the landlady he had when he had first arrived in this country.
“He said: ‘I just wanted to tell her where I was standing.’” The Prime Minister’s words contrast with Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s warning of a “hurricane” of migrants potentially moving around the world in a speech which sparked a furious backlash.
With the latest poll putting the Tories 19 points behind Labour, after a previous one suggested the gap had narrowed after Mr Sunak scaled back net-zero actions, Conservative MPs are hoping his new reforms pay off.
Mr Sunak faced disquiet among some Tories, with his predecessor Liz Truss drawing big conference crowds as she demanded immediate tax cuts to “make Britain grow again”, a year after she left office after a chaotic 49 days.
The HS2 scheme was given a budget of £55.7 billion in 2015 but costs have ballooned, with an estimate of up to £98billion — in 2019 prices — in 2020. Since then, soaring inflation will have pushed costs even higher.
The speech received a mixed reaction from unions, businesses and MPs.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the smoking ban was a “tough, long-term decision that will save us £17billion every year that can be reinvested in other areas of the health service”.
Kensington MP and Levelling Up minister Felicity Buchan told the Standard: “I thought it was an inspirational speech that really tackled the issues and it's transformational for this country. A very radical speech.”
On the announcement that more than £6billion being taken from the Euston station redevelopment to pay for housing in the area and other transport projects outside of London, she added: “We want to take a different approach to Euston and clearly there has been mismanagement there so I think it is appropriate."
RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said: “The incompetence of successive Tory governments has now cost the taxpayer billions and led to this disastrous decision for Britain’s economy, environment and our ailing transport infrastructure.
“High Speed rail together with a modern expanding public transport network is key to the future of linking every part of our country together, from north to south and East to West. “Public transport investment is not an either-or question.”
Pat McFadden, Labour’s National Campaign Coordinator, said: “The Tories have let Britain down for too long. They cannot be the change from their own failures. The damage they would do with five more years would be intolerable for working people.”
