Rishi Sunak will attack the last 30 years of “broken” politics – much of it under successive Conservative governments – as he pledges to fundamentally reform the UK. In his first party conference speech as Tory leader today, he will hit out at politicians who “spent more time campaigning for change than actually delivering it”.
After 13 years of Tory rule, including Boris Johnson’s Partygate scandal, the chaos of Liz Truss’s mini-Budget that rocked the financial markets, and the crumbling concrete crisis in schools, he will argue he is the political leader to take the tough decisions necessary for the good of the country.
The prime minister is expected to finally confirm he will scrap the HS2 rail link to Manchester, weeks after The Independent revealed the plan. The row over the high-speed line has overshadowed much of the conference, being held in the city, after Mr Sunak repeatedly refused to clarify its future.
In his speech, he will also accuse Labour, who are still trouncing the Tories in the polls, of wanting “power for the sake of power” and being “everything that is wrong with our politics". His comments will be seen as throwing down the gauntlet to Sir Keir Starmer ahead of his party’s conference, which opens this weekend in Liverpool.
This story is from the October 04, 2023 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the October 04, 2023 edition of The Independent.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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