Tory Party conference – live: Sunak set to finally confirm he will scrap HS2 rail link to Manchester

With an election only a year away, the Tory popularity contest has started in earnest. Sean O’Grady takes a look at the contenders for the top job:

Writing from the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Andrew Grice says that business leaders may be leading the charge on abandoning the Tories and embracing Labour.

Read Andrew’s full piece below:

Business secretary Kemi Badenoch said that there is “zero” chance of the UK securing a post-Brexit trade deal with the US while Joe Biden remains in the White House.

The cabinet minister risked a diplomatic row with Britain’s closest ally by saying the Democrat president was too “close” to the unions to strike a free trade agreement (FTA).

Adam Forrest reports:

Cabinet minister Michael Gove has claimed that the infamous Brexit campaign promise about leaving the EU leading to £350 a week for the NHS had been “delivered”.

The levelling up secretary offered no evidence for his claim on a Brexit boost for the health service, as he recalled the notorious pledge on the side of the Vote Leave battle bus.

Adam Forrest reports:

Leading lights of the Tory Party have spent their conference saying things that are demonstrably untrue – over and over again. Might this approach actually work, asks Tom Peck.

Read Tom’s full piece here:

Rishi Sunak’s government plans to send criminals abroad in a desperate bid to solve Britain’s prisons crisis as overcrowding reaches breaking point.

As figures uncovered by The Independent showed inmate numbers are reaching “dangerous” levels, justice secretary Alex Chalk said he would look to introduce laws to allow the UK to rent prison space abroad.

Archie Mitchell and Holly Bancroft report:

Home secretary Suella Braverman has warned that Britain faces a “hurricane” of migrants as she dialled up her anti-immigration rhetoric in a bid to appeal to the Tory faithful.

The cabinet minister made a fiery speech at the Conservative conference in Manchester, as she vowed to shut hotels used by asylum seekers and claimed Labour would “open the borders”.

Adam Forrest reports:

Suella Braverman has been introduced as the “darling of the conference” at a fringe event in Manchester.

“She is utterly thrilled at chants of ‘Braverman’ from some of the crowd” at the Blue Collar Conservatism reception, the Guardian’s Aubrey Allegretti reports.

Earlier the home secretary delivered a highly inflammatory speech at the conference, comparing migrants to a “hurricane”.

The north of England needs better connectivity to “drive its economy forward,” Manchester Airport Group (MAG) has said as it urged Rishi Sunak not to scrap the high speed northern leg of HS2.

Ken O’Toole, MAG CEO, said it would be “wrong” for the PM to ditch the plans after more than a “decade” of the government telling the country that “rebalancing the economy is one of its top priorities.

“It sold the country its vision for a new industrial revolution in the north, with high-value industries competing on the global stage and creating jobs and prosperity for everyone who lives and works there.

“We call on government to work with business and political leaders to ensure that vision is delivered.

“If that connected transport network is not delivered, then more than a decade of laying the foundations for the North’s future will have been wasted, and people and businesses of the region would understandably feel let down and misled.”

Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has said it is a “disgrace” that the government will scrap the high speed northern leg of HS2.

Sky News reported this evening that the line would still go ahead between London Euston and Manchester but switch to “normal tracks” after Birmingham.

Responding to the news on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Burnham said: “So, in other words, HS2 won’t go to Manchester and people in the North will be treated as second-class citizens - again? What a disgrace.”