London Thanasis Gavos

The four-day Conservative conference opened in Manchester on Sunday, with Britain’s ruling party trailing Labor by 20 percentage points in the polls, less than a year and a half before the next election.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has gone into the conference under fire from within the party for a series of decisions he has taken in a bid to revive his party, which has been in power for the past 13 years.

Four of the key talking points, which are causing mixed reactions, are the likely cancellation of construction of parts of the HS2 rail link designed to upgrade northern England by bringing a faster link to London, the “leadership” speech in the US by Home Secretary Suella Braverman on “failure of multiculturalism” in the UK and in favor of changing the UN Refugee Convention, the recent announcement by Mr Sunak of a time delay in meeting targets on the road to zero emissions by 2050, as well as the tax Tory politics.

Asked this morning by the BBC, the British Prime Minister avoided giving a clear answer as to whether HS2 will reach Manchester. The party is divided between those who see the project as essential for the north of England and those who want most parts of the project scrapped because of costs and delays.

In relation to the intervention of Ms Braverman, who is expected to deliver another debated speech at the conference on Tuesday, Downing Street has distanced itself from the failure of multiculturalism.

However, Mr Sunak is under pressure from top figures on the far right wing of the party to withdraw the country from the European Convention on Human Rights. At the same time, the verdict of the Supreme Court is pending on whether the British plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda can go ahead.

Finally, the perceived mitigation of the environmental policy by the prime minister brings him face to face with a wave of criticism from the centrist wing of the party.

Mr Sunack will also have to respond to the recent intervention of his predecessor Liz Truss, who a year after her historically short-lived 49-day tenure in Downing Street has made a series of interventions in favor of immediate and drastic tax cuts.

In a related question from the BBC, the prime minister avoided committing to tax cuts before the election. He was content to reply that “the best tax cut we can give the working people is to cut inflation in half”.

The pressure Mr Sunak is under is reflected in a new Observer poll, which shows that one in three (34%) citizens who voted Conservative in 2019 intend to vote for another party at the next election.

In addition, Sky News revealed WhatsApp messages between members of an organization belonging to the most conservative wing of the Tories, who commented that the Prime Minister was “as charismatic as a doorknob” and that he should be removed as part of a “war” with the Liberals wing of the party.

On the eve of the conference the government announced a £1.1 billion fund for “neglected” cities.

As part of the conference, on Sunday night, the traditional reception of the “Conservative Friends of Cyprus” is organized, which is traditionally honored by many pro-Cypriot parliamentarians and ministers. Secretary of State James Cleverley is also expected to attend and deliver a welcome address tonight.