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is provided by... narrator: pediatric surgeon. volunteer. topiary artist. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". christian: i am chrir and this is the context. >> i am ending this long-running saga and canceling the rest of the hs2 project. >> very disappointed that he announced that today. we should stand especially when it is something really

important. >> i don't think how you -- you should take a plan that goes beyond the life of any individual government and tear it up. kristen: rishi sunak says he is the change candidate brave enough to deliver the tough decisions. to one day be replaced by the advanced british standard. if you are 14, you are right to ever buy a cigarette. we will get reaction to all the prime minister's big announcements. also tonight, chaos in the american government. kevin mccarthy is out as house speaker and they have no plans yet to replace head. the 2030 world cup will be across six countries in three

different continents. this was a big moment for rishi sunak. a year into office, trailing 16 points in the polls. an opportunity for him to present himself as the agent of change. he announced he will be scrapping the northern leg of hs2. every penny of the savings, he said, would be invested instead in transportation projects across northern england and the midlands. he has promised to reform how england is run. an eye-catching announcement was a new and progressive age-related man -- ban on smoking that would combine a levels and teal levels into one single qualification for school levels. a reaction from manchester with our political editor, chris mason. >> manchester. the prime minister had his wife. >> rishi sunak and i are each

other's best friend and i could not imagine being anywhere else to show my support to him. [applause] >> rishi sunak began by thanking her, his daughters, and his parents as he drew a link between himself and margaret thatcher. p.m. sunak: this conservative party, the grocery stores daughter and the pharmacist son will always be on the party of small business. >> he said he has taken a look at how government works since he became a prime minister and it is not like what he has seen. p.m. sunak: it is an anger and absorption of politics. we have 30 years of a political system which encourages the easy system, not the right one. >> he said tes will come down but did not say when. and then it was the crux of this

speech, he proposed high school rail line. scrapped. p.m. sunak: i am ending the long-running saga and canceling the rest of the hs2 project. in its place, we will reinvest every single penny, 36 billion pounds, into hundreds of the new transport projects into the north and midlands across the country. this means 36 billion pounds of investment into projects that will make a real difference across our nation. >> this will include an extension tohe west village metro, electrifying the main rail line in north wales, and upgrading -- p.m. sunak: the a1, a2 pub, a 5, and a 6. >> there was more but it was not popular even in his own party.

me conservatives hate the idea of banning things. rishi sunak wants to banned -- wants to ban smoking for the next iterations. he got one of his biggest cheers here. p.m. sunak: we should notcan be. a man is a man and a woman is a woman. >> the final big policy idea was about post 16 education in england. p.m. sunak: we will introduce the new knowledge rich advanced british stand which will bring together a levels and t levels into a new, single qualification for our school leaders. >> as the speech drew toward conclusion, there was a return to personal reflection. rishi sunak said the u.k. was

not racist. pm sunak: i am proud to be the first british asian prime minister. i am even prouder that it is not a big deal. [applause] >> this was a speech in which the fifth prime minister in a 13 year run in office of conservatives made an audacious bid to be seen as the face of change. pm sunak: we will be bold, radical, face resistance, and meet it. no doubt, it is time for a change and we are it. [applause] >> this was an attempt by the prime minister to revitalize and re-energize his politics. the big question now for him is will this improve his political ospects? last roll of the dice? >> we know there will be a general election coming up in

the fairly near future. this is a statement of intent. >> are we seeing richie sunak of lease? >> he came in at quite a difficult time. >> this demand, the conservative mayor of the west midlands, who pleaded to save hs2. >> i am obviously very disappointed he announced this today. i fought for it. >> and you lost? where does that live -- leave you? where you you carry-on? >> i will because i do think it is right that you should stand up and something is important to your region. >> this was not a speech of instant crown pleasers but instead ideas that will divide and provoke. it is a gamble. chris mason, bbc news, west manchester. christian: we will take a deeper

dive into all the victory announcements. start with hs2. the northern areas cancel so pastors can only travel between manchester and birmingham. from there it will be linked with the slower west coast mainline. rishi sunak says the government will reinvest every penny. that is money that will go toward funding hundreds of new transport projects in the north, including a new manchester to bradford rail link, end full line from manchester to hold. the expansion of the west musto -- of the west metro system. us get the view of justin: bold, the director -- let us get the view of jessica, the director. she joins us om manchester. lots of details to be learned but from what you have been able to glean, what do you and people you meet rep -- and people you

represent think? jessica: this is to have certainty. this entire episode has been unhelpful in producing certainty. while the prime minister has finally made this announcement and there are so many unanswered questions in the announcements he has made. there is a lot more to be done. we now need to get a level of detail and understanding of what happens next and very quickly. christian: i outlined some things he is proposing. you west midlands mayor said compared to what could have happened, this is a good compromise position. is it possible the net result will be better than electrifying a fast speed line all the way to manchester? jessica: the devil is obviously in the detail. that remains to be seen. there is loads of announcements

in the paper that went along side's speech. i have read through that. the thing allowing from my perspective is there is not much on this. there is no timescale or sense of how this will actually be delivered. we can talk about some specifics in this, but i think we need to be able to get clarity from government about the timescale, when funding will become available, and how to reform the system so we can get business cases through treasury more quickly, planning does not get in the way, and we can actually deliver it. it is possible there will be good economic impacts from this but there is so many unanswered wester christian: what we should remember about hs2 is it started as a modern infrastructure plan linking london with the north. from birmingham running north, there are parts of the line that will link with the west coast mainline.

those sections of the line are pretty old and need replacing. that is a key part of the spine. how much confidence can we have that 10 to 20 years in time, it will be fit for purpose? jessica: i am not sure we can. from a business perspective, we have a lot of business and investment in birmingham and manchester. with the businesses we work with see those connections to london. we always made the point that hs2 is not about speed but about capacity. i am not sure where the additional capacity will come from on the west coast. the report that came out today from government says in two paragraphs that they will double capacity. and on that section of the west coast. and get more freight cars and passengers able to use it. but it is unclear how that will

happen, with the cost will be, and what level of destruction there will be. when the west coast was previously upgraded, there were months, if not years, of destruction and weekend closures and engineering on the line of this -- of closures. it is a challenge to see how this will work. christian: there is some rumor that the plots of land acquired along the route will be handed back and the number of platforms they were going to build will be reduced so if labor wanted to revise this plan, it would be much more different whole. are you hearing similar things? jessica: i have not heard these rumors. they have read that they will start releasing land that has been acquired hs2 and protected for the hs2 group -- acquired and protected for the hs2 route. i think that it is really to be

welcomed that the line will go into use. that is definitely a good thing. the idea we could have had a section of high-speed full between here and birmingham is a nonsense. it is going to houston and we recognize that. christian: we will talk plenty more about the prime minister's speech. but just a short break around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news. a quick look at the other stories. police are investigating possible corporate manslaughter at hospital where a child serial killer worked. she was found guilty in august of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others at the come hospital. a safeguard review will take place into the death of sarah sharif. the 10-year-old's body was found at home in waking.

her father, stepmother, and une appeared and will face a trial next autumn. a sack by bbc news after an outcry about comments made on air about a female journalist. this sparked controversy last week when he asked what self-respecting man would climb into bed with ava evans? diesel prices search last month as the rising cost of oil hit drivers at the pump. petrel jumped by an average of 4.5 pence. you are watching bbc news. one of the things set of the conservative party conference in manchester is over the days, it appeared pretty light on policy. now we know most of the big announcements were saved for the prime minister speech. one is he plans to scrap smoking by raising the legal age for

buying cigarettes -- buying tobacco when year every year. this means most of today's teenagers would never be able to buy cigarettes. pm sunak: if we can stop the start, we could be on our way to preventing the biggest cause of disease in our country. i propose that in future, erasing smoking age by one year every year. [applause] that means a 14-year-old today will never legally be sold a cigarette. and they and their generation can grow up smoke-free. christian: both sides of the debate tonight with izzy's hazel cheesman. the deputy cef of ash, action on smoking and health. and also with us is simon clark,

director of the group forest. simon, is smoking a net cost or net gain? simon: it depends on what figures you take. but the figures we looked at are the revenue the treasury gets from the sale of tobacco. that is 10 billion pounds a year. against that, the cost of treating smoking-related diseases is said to be 2.5 billion pounds. people come up with lots of estimates for how much societal costs are involved. but they arell calculated on the act of a cigarette pack. what we do know is smoking contributes to over 10 billion pounds a year. that is money that smokers set on the all gave up, the treasury would have to find several else. christian: it is very popular if you look at polling, 70% on amount of people are in favor.

this will be a free vote in the parliament. as chris set at the top of the program, conservatives generally are not keen on banning things. what do you make of this policy? simon: i think it is utterly ridiculous, coming from a conservative government, which is supposed to promote things like freedom of choice and personal's responsibility -- and personal responsibility. it is clipping prohibition. we know prohibition does not work and will not stop young people smoking. they will not be able to legally purchase cigarettes but this will not stop the illegally buying cigarettes. as people get older, they will simply buy them abroad, perfectly gently. the idea this will have an effect on smoking rates in this country is nonsense.

the principles involved through freedom of choice and personal responsibility are incredibly important to a law of conservative supporters. i think there will be pushback amongst a lot of tory lp. we have already heard liz truss say she will not vote for this and i think there will be a lot of tory mps who will not vote for this. i am sure some feel they have to go along with this because there conservative leader but she sunak is pushing this. the bizarre thing is he has never shown any interest in the smoking debate so you have to feel this has nothing to do with public health and all to do with politics. he has an election coming up. christian: let me give some questions to hazel. this is from a policy of the new zealand government brought in in december so it is too early to tell whether that is effective. but it is true to say that when

cigarettes were banned from the pub, it did force a culture change in the country. zel: certainly and when the age of sale went from 16 to 18, we saw about a droof one third of looking in that age group. also when it went from 18 to 21 in the u.s. among 18, 19, and 20-year-olds in the u.s. there clearly is a working approach. it is slightly different from the u.s. and modeled on the new zealand style. but the package of measures is really ambitious and they really set this to a future vision that can be smoke-free. which is visionary and something that should be applauded and is achievable. christian: simon is quite right though, isn't he, that it is a form of prohibition and there will be a black market of

cigarettes. we will have this situation where you may have a 23-year-old in the street having to buy cigarettes for his 22-year-old mate. how do you police that? hazel: the point is that we have four years before these 14-year-olds will reach the point where they would be legally able to purchase tobacco. the government is also pledging to put doubling the amount of money being spent in the local governments to increase the amount of money being spent in these campaigns. there is always seem thus there is obviously more they should be doing but if we are able to drive this down across the board and if rishi sunak makes an uptick in his situation, we will look back in a decades time or 15 years time and smoking will be incredibly rare. christian: i looked at the share prices of some big tobacco

companies today and they are down dramatically. one was down around 3% around 2:00 this afternoon. the reason is the market sees these risks and other markets think this is good for public health, we will follow suit. simon: possibly. i cannot speak for the companies. i do not have a problem with smoking becoming obsolete if it is through education and smokers voluntarily switching to reduce risk products e-cigarettes or heated tobacco or nicotine patches. the problem with this policy is the element of coercion and prohibition involved, trying to force people to either never start smoking or give up smoking. we have to remember that once you are 18, in this country, you are legally an adult and can drive a car, joined the army, and purchase alcohol. why shouldn't you be able to make a choice to buy tobacco?

you are 18, an adult. we are evangelizing young adults. christian: is it a --state? hazel: we are talking about this idea that it is a free choice people are making. the only free choice is the first cigarette people have, generally when they are teenagers. two thirds of people once they start smoking go on to continue smoking. i am not surprised simon thinks the way to go is just education, and policy we know is not very effective at driving down smoking rates. simon's organization is funded by the tobacco industry so i am surprised he is not interested in the fact their share prices have dropped they. the writing is on the wall. this is an industry dying in this country and we need makes writing dyes around the rest of the world as well.

christian: simonton hazel, thank you for your time. what about the decision to replace a levels nt levels with a replace british standard. most typically study five subjects including math and english until thage of 18. one notable change is students would be able to combine both academic and educational studies. so typically three major and two minor courses. this will require more teachers and the prime minister is requiring teachers in further education be rewarded with a special bonus of up to 37,000 pounds tax-free. it will be sometime before the new qualification comes in. let's talk to becky bainbridge, the ceo of claim, an organization based in manchester to amplify the voices of young people. is there an attitude with regards to t levels and

vocational qualifications that maybe they are not up to the high levels and perhaps will improve opportunities for young people in working-class families? becky: there is a stigma around t levels in any experience witha levels. as the mother of an 18-year-old, his team level courses have not been as widely regarded as the a levels. christian: is that because they don't have as much? becky: it is more with the fact that for centuries, we have gone down this route that is like to go to school and get your gcs sees and get a levels and then go to university and if you can

go to universities, you can go to a russell group university you can go to oxbridge. we only have to look at how the cabinet is made up with the essential -- the amount of people who went to procedures universities. that is projecting the image that you have power, that is the way you need to go. christian: that is good but these kids you are getting in and encouraging to further edation, how likely are they going to do that if they have to have more history and english? becky: that is the problem. it is being presented as a problem because it gives breath and deh. but that already exists because you can combine vocational subjects in college. this is forcing people to study math and english again and told edge of 18 that the age of 18.

they have an obsession that math and english need to be studied until the age of 18 but we know for some people that will not help very much in the studies of other subjects. christian: we have to leave it there because we are about to go to break. it is an interesting policy though. thank you, becky brame bridge, ceo of reclaim. you are going to go to a short break. on the other side, american politics narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this pro