PM declares politics broken in bid to wrest back control

Sunak to say voters are exhausted’ amid chaos of Tory factional fighting

- Pippa Crerar, Rajeev Syal

Britain’s political system is broken and voters are exhausted, Rishi Sunak will say today as he struggle s to wrestle back control of the agenda at a Conservative conference dominated by rival factions, leadership posturing and speculation about HS2.

But the prime minister will face accusations that, after 13 years of Tory government, many of the problems he diagnoses in Westminster – including social care, the housing crisis and the NHS – are of his party’s own making.

In his speech, Sunak will say: “There is the undeniable sense that politics just doesn’t work the way it should … a feeling that Westminster is a broken system … It isn’t anger, it is an exhaustion with politics. In particular, politicians saying things, and then nothing ever changing.”

He has battled to keep an often chaotic conference in Manchester on track as senior Tories, including Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch and Liz Truss, jostled for the limelight, while ministers admitted privately that they doubted their party’s chances at next year’s election.

In a populist speech clearly intended to cement her position as a standard-bearer of the Conservative right, Braverman, the home secretary, warned of a “hurricane” of mass migration and attacked the “luxury beliefs” of liberal-leaning people .

An embattled-sounding Sunak insisted yesterday he would still be in office by the time of the next party conferences, telling broadcasters he was willing to be unpopular to drive through change. “I’m prepared to persuade people that what I’m doing is right,” he said.