RADICAL Rishi Sunak promised to bring back common sense as he took the axe to fags and vast stretches of HS2 and vowed to reform A-Levels.
The PM used his sweeping first speech to the Tory conference to hammer Sir Keir Starmer, woke extremists and the enemies of change.
After a year of cautious leadership, he said the time had come to “give the country what it so sorely needs and yet too often has been denied” — even if that meant blowing up consensus politics.
Throwing down the gauntlet to play-it-safe Labour, he vowed to be bold and radical and, in a broadside at Euro judges. “do whatever it takes” to stop small boats.
He told his party faithful: “We will be bold, we will be radical, we will face resistance and we will meet it. Be in no doubt. It is time for a change and we are it.”
Taking aim at the woke mob, Mr Sunak promised never to cave to trans activists, saying: “We shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t.”
To loud applause, he declared: “A man is a man and a woman is a woman. That’s just common sense.”
Mr Sunak said teachers should have to tell parents if their kids are thinking of changing gender.
He said: “It shouldn’t be controversial for parents to know what their children are being taught in school about relationships.”
Turning his attention to Labour, he branded Sir Keir a “walking definition of the 30-year political status quo”.
Mr Sunak warned the Labour leader wanted to drag Britain back under Brussels rule.
The PM said it was his mission to “fundamentally change” the UK whereas Labour had set out their stall “to do and say as little as possible and hope noone notices”.
Mr Sunak added: “They want to take people’s votes for granted and keep doing politics the same old way. It is a bet on people’s apathy.
“It is about power for the sake of power. It is, in short, everything that is wrong with our politics.”
In a policy blitz, the PM finally confirmed the Manchester leg of HS2 is to be binned.
He said: “I say to those who backed the project in the first place, the facts have changed and the right thing to do when the facts change is to have the courage to change direction.
“HS2 is the ultimate example of the old consensus. The result is a project whose costs have more than doubled, which has been repeatedly delayed and is not scheduled to reach here in Manchester for almost two decades.
“The economic case has massively weakened with the changes to business travel post-Covid.”
Mr Sunak said its £36billion cost will be reinvested in “Network North” to fund the development and upgrade of “hundreds upon hundreds” of road and rail, bus and train projects. Funds will be pumped into connecting 50 stations in the North and Midlands, including Manchester and Liverpool.
Road upgrades will include the long-promised widening of the A1.
Mr Sunak also vowed to create a development zone where thousands of new homes will replace the current building site for an HS2 terminal at London’s Euston station.
Away from HS2, Mr Sunak pledged to “put the next generation first” by banning youngsters from smoking and reforming A-levels.
We will be bold, we will be radical, we will face resistance and we will meet it. Be in no doubt. It is time for a change and we are it.
Rishi Sunak
Under new laws to go to a free vote, a 14-year-old today will never be able to legally buy fags.
Mr Sunak said the decision would save more lives than any other the Conservative Party could make.
The PM also pointed out that smoking costs the UK £17billion a year against the £10billion of tax revenue it brings in.
Under education reforms, A-Levels will be replaced by an Advanced British Standard in which pupils will “major” and “minor” in subjects that must include English and maths and can include vocational classes.
It would mean 195 extra hours in the classroom than under A-Levels or T-Levels.“ Rip off” degrees that saddle students with debt for little benefits also face boot.
On the NHS, the PM turned his attention to striking BMA doctors. He railed: “They continue to demand massive unaffordable pay rises and that they have chosen to walk out this week says it all – this strike is about politics not patients.”
Channelling Margaret Thatcher, the PM drew a parallel to their shared upbringing as a “pharmacist’s son and grocer’s daughter”.
And he quoted her warning that “no policy which puts at the risk the defeat of inflation—no matter its short-term attraction—can be right”, as he called for more time before cutting tax.
Mr Sunak even found time for a gag at the expense of the former SNP leader and her recent arrest in a police probe into the party’s alleged murky finances.
He said: “Nicola Sturgeon wanted to go down in the history books as the woman who broke up our country. But now it looks like she may go down for very different reasons.” Ms Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell deny wrongdoing.
It emerged last night that Mr Sunak has been reported to cops over the comments amid the live police investigation.
Chris McEleny, the general secretary of the rival pro-independence Alba Party, reported him to the force for contempt of court allegations.
Labour, meanwhile, hit back at Mr Sunak calling his speech his “latest desperate attempt to reset his weak leadership”.
SMOKE BAN AGE RISE EVERY YEAR
KIDS now under-14 will never be able to buy cigarettes in the UK after Rishi Sunak said he planned to raise the smoking age by a year every year.
He said: “Four in five smokers start by the time they are 20.”
No10 said while the Treasury nets £10billion a year in cigarette taxes the health costs were £17billion.
A-LEVELS GO AND MATHS UNTIL 18
A-LEVELS will be replaced by the “Advanced British Standard” — with compulsory maths and English taken until 18.
The US-style scheme will see pupils “major” and “minor” in at least five subjects that can include vocational classes.
New teachers will get a tax-free bonus of up to £30,000 over their first five years.
LIFE MEANS LIFE
SUNAK wants to ensure “sadistic” killers spend the rest of their lives in prison.
He said: “Some crimes are so heinous those who perpetrate them should spend the rest of their lives behind bars.”
He added: “We will legislate for sexual and sadistic murders to carry a full life term with no prospect of release.”
