Tory Party Conference 2023 LIVE: Rishi Sunak to present himself as the man to ‘fundamentally change the country’ in keynote speech as annual meeting draws to a close

Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s rhetoric is ‘certainly no Enoch Powell situation’, her Cabinet colleague Grant Shapps said as he defended her claim that a ‘hurricane’ of mass migration is coming.

The Defence Secretary told Times Radio: ‘She makes the absolutely correct point we’ve already seen a lot of movement… we could see a lot more, a hurricane, as she describes it, of people moving.’

Asked about comparisons which have been made to Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech, he said: ‘So many people are from immigrant backgrounds in this country. I think I’m third generation myself… Suella’s first generation, her parents came over in the 60s. So this is certainly no Enoch Powell situation, is it, to make the very obvious point.’

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps suggested there may be more ‘worthwhile’ ways of spending money than on completing the Manchester to Birmingham leg of HS2.

Speaking to GB News this morning, he said there had been a ‘change in travel patterns’ since the pandemic and suggested there could be ‘fantastic levelling opportunity’ from diverting funding to other projects.

Asked whether ministers were turning their back on levelling up by scrapping part of the planned rail line, Mr Shapps said: ‘It absolutely is not turning our back at all.

‘In fact, of course, we need to wait for the Prime Minister’s speech. If he were to scrap the second leg of HS2… and take that money, you can’t really judge it without finding out where that money is going to be spent because that could actually have a fantastic levelling up opportunity.

‘Billions of pounds, tens of billions of pounds, so what could that be spent on?

‘And perhaps there are things which are worthwhile doing more than building a high-speed rail line given Covid, given what’s happened, given the change in travel patterns.’

Here is the schedule for the morning media round today:

6.20am: Northern Powerhouse Partnership chief executive Henri Murison, LBC
6.45am: Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, GB News
7.00am: Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, Times Radio
7.10am: Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, BBC Breakfast
7.20am: Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, Sky News
7.30am: Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, BBC Breakfast
8.10am: Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, ITV’s Good Morning Britain
8.30am: Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, ITV’s Good Morning Britain
8.35am: Andrew Boff, London Assembly chair who was ejected from the conference hall during Suella Braverman’s speech, LBC

The main speeches at the Conservative Party Conference today are as follows:

11.15am: Penny Mordaunt, Leader of the House of Commons

11.30am: Johnny Mercer, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs

11.45am Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister

Good morning and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage of the final day of the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.

Later, Rishi Sunak will rail against post-Thatcher politics and attempt to portray himself as a radical reformer as he faced a backlash for abandoning the northern leg of HS2.

The Prime Minister will use his speech to try to convince the public he will ‘fundamentally change the country’ and fix Westminster’s ‘broken system’.

Stay with our liveblog throughout today for all the updates.