All change: HS2 link axed - and A-levels on way out

Billions ploughed into levelling up and new moves to curb smoking

- Nicholas Cecil, Jitendra Joshi

RISHI SUNAK declared today "it is time for a change" in Britain with landmark education, health and transport reforms which he hopes will put him on track to pull off a general election victory against the odds.

The Prime Minister unveiled three major blueprints to replace A-levels with a new broader Advanced British Standard, to ban smoking and to plough tens of billions more into levelling-up, funded by controversially axing the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the HS2 high-speed rail line.

He also announced a huge redevelopment plan for Euston, where the high-speed line will end, aimed at creating up to 10,000 new homes.

In his keynote address to the Conservatives' annual rally in Manchester, Mr Sunak sought to portray himself as a radical reformer willing to take tough decisions which he argued had been ducked by past prime ministers for decades.

"Be in no doubt: It is time for a change," he was set to tell the Tory party faithful. "And we are it."

Doubling down on this key theme, he was due to stress: "We will give the country what it so sorely needs, and yet too often has been denied.

"A government prepared to make long-term decisions so that we can build a brighter future - for everyone." In what will be seen as a major gamble, as the Tories seek to close Labour's double-digit poll lead and seize the mantle of the "party of change" despite being in power for 13 years, Mr Sunak: