'HS2 mess is the perfect metaphor for 13 years of Tory failure'

30 September 2023 , 20:00

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The HS2 is due to link London with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds (Image: PA)

This weekend, the Tory Party is heading to Manchester to witness Rishi Sunak ’s latest attempt to reset his failing leadership.

His big message seems to be that he’s not going to build the HS2 train line that the Tories have already spent £25 billion on. A train line that is supposed to go to…Manchester.

You couldn’t make it up.

It’s the perfect metaphor for 13 years of Tory failure and decline. 13 years of chaos that have left everything broken. Record NHS waiting lists. School roofs at risk of caving in. Rivers full of sewage. Most devastating of all, hundreds of pounds a month of mortgage misery for families, thanks to the Tories crashing the economy.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (PA)

Rishi Sunak is out of touch, out of ideas and out of time. He’ll say and do anything to save his own skin. Anything, that is, except stand up to his own party. Without any mandate from the public, Sunak is in hock to the Tory extremists pushing for more reckless measures.

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He’s even about to hand some of them cushy places in the House of Lords for their efforts. Two weeks ago, Chief Wrecker Liz Truss popped up with more dangerous ideas about how the economy should be run. In the same way you wouldn’t listen to an arsonist giving a speech on fire safety, most people wisely ignored her. But barely 48 hours had passed before Sunak pathetically adopted her plans.

Put simply: Weak Rishi is still in the pocket of Truss and her Tory Party. This week in Manchester we’ll see more of the same. More unfunded tax cuts for those who don’t need them, more gimmicks, more desperate U-turns, more undeliverable promises, more misery for Britain.

Mirror readers will be able to contrast that with the Labour conference in Liverpool next week. There, they’ll see a changed party, ready to give Britain its future back – putting country first, party second.

Closing tax loopholes for the wealthy to properly fund our NHS and schools. Building homes to get people on the housing ladder. Giving the police powers to smash vile people smuggling gangs. Switching on Great British Energy so we are no longer at the mercy of Putin. Fixing the Prime Minister’s botched windfall tax on oil and gas giants to provide cost of living help for people across the country. That’s a proper plan to start to build a better Britain – and put an end to 13 years of Tory chaos.

Jonathan Ashworth