Ah the regional BBC round: the chance for any aspiring local reporter to make a name for themselves. Every year, in the run-up to Tory conference, the party leader must subject themselves to this ritual piñata, in which they face a barrage of quick-fire questions from journalists across the country. Last year it was Liz Truss’s turn to face eight such grillings in under an hour, in which she was asked if she was ‘ashamed’ of her mini-Budget and accused of being a ‘reverse Robin Hood’.

This time Rishi Sunak didn’t endure such a battering, though the PM would no doubt squirm if he listened back to his cross-examination on the future of high-speed rail. Appearing on BBC Manchester, Sunak repeatedly refused to answer questions on whether he will scrap the HS2 line to, er, Manchester. Host Anna Jameson said ‘We’re straight talking people in the North, it’s a yes or a no, are you scrapping the HS2 to line between Birmingham and Manchester?’ Sunak chose to, um, not answer directly, airily claiming that ‘I’m not speculating on future things’ before segueing into a riff on potholes.

Well done @anna_jameson_ @BBCRadioManc to Sunak “but we’re talking about trains, we’re not talking about cars”. PM refusing to confirm #HS2 – like interviewing Alan Partridge. You just know he has leather driving gloves! pic.twitter.com/vEcklMvly1

— James Murphy ?? (@jwmurphy) September 28, 2023

In the same interview, Sunak improvised a somewhat unorthodox pronounciation of ‘the north’ as the ‘nerf’ – an impressive feat for a Yorkshire MP. And his HS2 woes weren’t just restricted to Radio Manchester, with Andrew Peach on BBC Radio Berkshire asking: ‘Is HS2 axed or not? It’s not acceptable to say “I don’t know” – you’re the Prime Minister, it’s your decision.’ Sunak replied that ‘there’s been a lot of speculation [and] focus on this one thing but we’re investing in transport everywhere.’

Talk about rail causing a car crash…