Rishi Sunak has rejected criticism that the latest U-turn means the UK cannot be taken seriously as he faces a Conservative conference dominated by questions over tax cuts and rivals jostling to succeed him fought to maintain order.
In the traditional pre-conference television interview, the Prime Minister again refused to say whether HS2 would extend to Manchester, the host city of the conference, which begins on Sunday afternoon.
When interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One on Sunday, Sunak said he was relaxed about taking office without an election and then dropping key parts of the Tories’ 2019 manifesto, saying he understood instinctively , what the public wanted.
“I have a good sense of the priorities of the British people,” he said. “I will set about delivering for them. And that’s the change I’m going to make.”
Shortly before Sunak spoke, Michael Gove, the leveling secretary, highlighted the extent to which Cabinet ministers had been freelancing on policy ahead of the conference and called for tax cuts before the election.
Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, and Suella Braverman, the home secretary, have also made the case in newspaper interviews for the conservative right to succeed Sunak after an election by calling on the UK to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.
In a sometimes combative interview, Sunak tried to present himself as a resurgent prime minister with a plan for change following the recent U-turn on net zero targets and the expected U-turn on HS2.
Asked whether uncertainty over HS2 risks Britain being seen as a “laughing stock”, Sunak replied: “I would reject that completely.” I speak to business leaders all the time. I just traveled around the world. I was recently in Japan, in America, in Europe. We are attracting billions of dollars in investments to this country and creating jobs everywhere.
“That’s what I’m hearing from business leaders around the world. They are excited about the opportunity that investing in the UK offers.”
However, Sunak again refused to say whether HS2 would run to Manchester as planned or stop in Birmingham.
“The first steps are already underway with HS2 and we are in the process of implementing it,” he said. When told that was not the question, he added: “I’m not going to comment on all this speculation.”
Kuenssberg played Sunak a clip of Richard Walker, the Icelandic retailer’s chief executive, saying Sunak’s government had “lost touch with the needs of businesses, the environment and also the everyday people my company touches and serves.”
Sunak – who appeared to argue that Walker might be upset in part because he had failed to be chosen as a future Tory MP – said: “Change can be uncomfortable for people. People may be critical of it, but I believe I am doing the right thing for the country.”
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With the conference likely to be the last Tory meeting before an election, Sunak will face significant pressure to agree to tax cuts, something Gove advocates for in his interview.
“I would like to see the tax burden reduced before the next election,” Gove told Sky’s Sunday with Trevor Phillips. “In my opinion we should reduce taxes on labor wherever possible. In other words, we should encourage people to work harder, and we should ensure that they are better rewarded for the undertaking, the effort and the effort they put in.”
When asked about this, Sunak simply said: “The best tax cut we can give working people is to halve inflation.”
Sunak pushed for his relaxation of environmental targets and his decision to prioritize the needs of motorists over bus users, pedestrians and cyclists, insisting this was not a “knee-jerk reaction to the Uxbridge by-election” in July, which the Tories unexpectedly won by campaigning against London’s expanded clean air zones.
However, he suggested that measures to limit local authorities’ ability to introduce 20mph zones and other road safety measures could end up being quite limited.
Asked how this would work, he said it was about “ensuring that the statutory guidance that the government gives to local councils sets out clearly that local authorities, who are obviously responsible for what is happening in their local areas, “are responsible for doing things” with the support and approval of their local community”.