Ch-ch-ch-changes! Sunak kills off HS2, A-levels and smoking – and sets fire to his future

Akshata Murty was charming and looked a million dollars, Barbie to Rishi’s dead-eyed Ken, writes Tom Peck. Unfortunately, all her husband had to trumpet was empty rhetoric and a fantasy world in which everything changes, and yet stays exactly the same

Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty, who ‘looked a million dollars – just don’t ask where they’re domiciled’ (PA Wire)

“Be in no doubt. It is time for a change – and we are it!” After four wild days in Manchester, these were the last triumphant words of the Conservatives’ 14th consecutive conference as the party of government.

The delegates clapped their hands in front of them as their eyes glanced sidewards. There’s no doubt it is time for a change. But are they it? Even the prime minister didn’t look entirely convinced.

It’s possible that the auto-satirical madness of the moment had caught up with him. There he had been, not 10 minutes beforehand, standing in a disused Manchester railway station, proudly announcing the cancellation of a major new train line to Manchester. He had looked change square in the eye and given it the finger, and – we must assume – hoped that nobody had noticed.