Prime Minister confuses East Midlands for 'West' during speech to Curry's workers in Nottinghamshire

It is rare for a prime minister to take centre stage at an event while a rival political party is holding its conference. Credit: ITV News Central

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confused the East Midlands for the West in a blunder during a speech at Curry's national distribution centre, in Nottinghamshire.

The PM was addressing staff on Monday (9 October) at the retail giant's base.

Whilst speaking about the benefits of scrapping HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester, the Prime Minister said: "Instead of all this money being gobbled up by one big rail project, we're able to spend it improving our roads across the country, here in the West Midlands."

Rishi Sunak referred to the 'West' Midlands instead of the 'East' in a speech about HS2.

Away from the Prime Minister's visit to the East Midlands, Labour's annual party conference is taking place in Liverpool.

ITV News Central's Peter Bearne asked the Prime Minister if his appearance in Newark was "a sign of desperation".

In response, Mr Sunak said: "I'm here because this is an incredible business filled with incredible people."

The prime minister responds to questions about his public appearance during the Labour Party conference.

The government has pledged more than £1.5 billion to the East Midlands, which the Prime Minister says is more than any other region in the country.

He said: "When you have a new mayor, we want to put them in control - that's what happens in London."

Mr Sunak added: "It shouldn't be me making those decisions about which tram you guys want, where you think it should go, how you should improve bus routes, that should be all of you making those decisions.

"We're also accelerating 10 roads across the East Midlands, and on rail we're doing a couple of really exciting things."

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