Reports that PM Rishi Sunak is poised to axe the Manchester leg of the high-speed rail link are 'incorrect', Downing Street says.
Find out moreIt says reports that PM Rishi Sunak is poised to scrap the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the high-speed rail link are "incorrect"
That has happened with HS2 this afternoon. Some outlets reported shortly before Jeremy Hunt’s speech began that Downing Street had now definitively decided to scrap the leg from Birmingham to Manchester. There have been lots of discussions at the very top of government about this. Indeed, that’s how the speculation started: a long-lens photo of a briefing document being carried into Downing Street which alluded to questions over HS2's fate. But we don’t think those discussions have yet been broadened out to the full cabinet team you would expect to be bound in to a decision of this significance.
It certainly went down well with the party members in the room. Follow-up information from the Conservative Party suggests the reductions will be especially focused on civil servants working on diversity and equality. He goes on to praise the PM"whose own life story shows you just what's possible with education, aspiration and hard work".The chancellor says it is"time to take on the declinists" and to"roll up our sleeves and... prove the doubters wrong.Hunt says he's proud to live in a country where"there is a ladder everyone can climb, but also a safety net below which no one falls".
He says no one should have their bank account closed because someone decides they are not politically correct.Hunt says he will freeze the expansion of the civil service, which he says will save the UK £1bn next year. There was also a standing ovation from some in the hall when PM Rishi Sunak entered to take his seat in the audience.
Former PM Liz Truss gave a speech from the sidelines to a packed crowd, calling on the party to"axe tax, cut bills and build homes"
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