Wednesday at the Conservative Conference - Rishi Sunak speech
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00:08 Hello, I'm here in a packed Tory conference hall
00:11 where we have just finished hearing from the Prime Minister
00:13 in a speech incredibly heavy on policy
00:16 after several days in which ministers seem to have nothing
00:18 to announce at all.
00:19 In a wide ranging speech where he was introduced by his wife,
00:22 the Prime Minister firstly announced a ban on smoking
00:25 when the age of 14, meaning the smoking ban age will rise
00:29 one year every year.
00:31 So a 14-year-old now will never, ever be
00:33 able to legally buy a cigarette.
00:35 He points out the fact that one in four cancer cases
00:37 are caused by smoking.
00:38 I don't know how this is going to work in Scotland,
00:41 where it's obviously devolved.
00:42 But it was a wide ranging speech.
00:43 We also heard about HS2.
00:45 He cancelled HS2 to Manchester, as is widely expected.
00:49 And he said, £36 billion, he said,
00:52 will be spent every penny of that
00:53 will be spent on improving connectivity
00:55 in the North and the Midlands, including the A75 to Scotland.
00:59 Obviously, very difficult to have cancelled it.
01:02 It's hugely controversial here.
01:04 Many MPs and obviously the mayor of the West Midlands,
01:06 Andy Street, is livid about it.
01:09 But the Prime Minister said to his critics,
01:10 he's trying to stare them down and say,
01:12 if you don't support us investing the way that we are investing
01:15 that money, you don't want to improve.
01:16 You don't think that we can make real links.
01:18 And actually, times have changed.
01:20 We need to have a long term plan.
01:21 And this long term plan of improving buses, improving
01:24 roads, the smoking ban, these are
01:26 things that are the long term decisions, or long term
01:29 plan for a brighter future.
01:31 And Rishi Sunak has tried to make so much of.
01:34 We also heard, and quite possibly the strongest hint
01:36 yet, that he will leave the European Court of Rights
01:39 or seek to on stopping the boats.
01:40 While no policy was announced on that area,
01:43 the Prime Minister said he would do whatever it takes,
01:45 which is widely seen in the room as a hint
01:47 that we could leave the European Court of Human Rights, which
01:49 is one of the key areas which has stopped the UK government
01:52 being able to slow down the processing of boats coming
01:56 over to this country, as well as the whole ignoring
01:59 international law thing.
02:00 Speaking to MPs after, one told me
02:02 this is the best political speech they've ever
02:03 heard at conference.
02:04 That was an MP who's been coming here for decades.
02:07 Others said it was brilliant.
02:08 And even those on the libertarian end,
02:09 who maybe would be unhappy using traditionally
02:11 with the idea of banning smoking,
02:13 were very pleased indeed.
02:14 So the mood is quite good among the members.
02:16 The mood is good among MPs.
02:18 It remains to be seen how this fits to the wider country.
02:21 To find out and to read more about this,
02:23 stay tuned to thescotsman.com.
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