UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Addresses Conservatives at Party Conference

UK Prime Minister Rushi Sunak addressed his own Conservative Party annual conference in Manchester.

Transcript

00:00 You see that our most potent strength, our most powerful resource, our greatest hope,

00:04 is our people. But what I've learnt is that there is an undeniable sense that politics just doesn't

00:12 work the way it should. The feeling that Westminster is a broken system, and the same goes for Holyrood,

00:18 Cardiff Bay and Stormont. It isn't anger, it's an exhaustion with politics. In particular,

00:26 politicians saying things and then nothing ever changing. And you know what? People are right.

00:33 Politics doesn't work the way it should. We've had 30 years of a political system which incentivises

00:42 the easy decision, not the right one. 30 years of vested interests standing in the way of change.

00:48 30 years of rhetorical ambition which achieves little more than a short-term headline. And why?

00:57 Because our political system is too focused on short-term advantage, not long-term success.

01:01 Politicians spend more time campaigning for change than actually delivering it.

01:06 It doesn't have to be this way. I won't be this way. Conference, our mission is to fundamentally

01:15 change our country. And if we want fundamental change in our country, we need a strong economy

01:21 as a foundation. That is why halving inflation was the first and most important of the five

01:28 priorities I set out at the start of the year. Everything we want to achieve requires getting

01:34 inflation under control. Inflation is the biggest destroyer of all, of industry, of jobs, of savings

01:43 and of society. No policy which puts at risk the defeat of inflation, no matter its short-term

01:50 attraction, can be right. Not my words, but those of Margaret Thatcher, as true now as they were then.

01:59 [Applause]

02:06 I know you want tax cuts. I want them too and we will deliver them. But the best tax cut we can

02:12 give people right now is to halve inflation and ease the cost of living. And so I am ending

02:19 this long-running saga. I am cancelling the rest of the HS2 project. And in its place,

02:27 [Applause]

02:28 and in its place, we will reinvest every single penny, £36 billion in hundreds of new transport

02:40 projects in the North and the Midlands, across the country. This means £36 billion of investment

02:47 in the project that will make a real difference across our nation.

02:51 [Applause]