OFF THE RAILS
Massive row over scrapping HS2 erupts at Conservative conference with Rishi Sunak set to ditch northern leg
CONSERVATIVE conference came off the rails yesterday as Tories told the PM they would fight to keep HS2.
The warning came when a row over scrapping the high speed rail link blew up as the Chancellor took to the stage.
4
4
Jeremy Hunt’s big speech was overshadowed by claims the PM will use his own address tomorrow to announce the Manchester leg of the bungled rail project will be axed.
But the Tory West Midlands Mayor Andy Street threatened to resign on the steps of the main conference hotel, telling the PM: “I won’t let HS2 go without a fight.”
He said: “If you tell the international investment community you are going to do something, you bloody well have to stick to your word.”
And he repeatedly refused to rule out quitting if the plug was pulled.
READ MORE POLITICS
Meanwhile Labour Mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham said axing the northern leg of HS2 would be the “desperate act of a dying government”.
No 10 insisted no final decision had been made — but Mr Hunt’s spokesman let slip an announcement by the PM was imminent.
He said: “It’s not the Treasury’s announcement, it’s for the Prime Minister.”
Earlier in the day the Chancellor himself said: “I do have to answer the question as to why it costs ten times more to build a railway in this country than just across the Channel in France.”
Confronted by The Sun’s revelation HS2 has 167 PR workers, he said some of the project’s spending was “totally unacceptable”.
PM Rishi Sunak is set to drastically scale back the flagship rail line to rein in the eye-watering costs.
Neither the Chancellor nor Transport Secretary Mark Harper mentioned the future of HS2 in their conference speeches, despite continued reports that it would be cut.
A package appeared to have been signed off by Mr Hunt on Monday amid suggestions the pill could be sweetened by improvements for northern infrastructure.
An expanded Northern Powerhouse rail project linking cities and fresh cash for potholes and bus routes could be announced to soften the blow.
But the drastic cost-cutting exercise amid suggestions the price-tag has spiralled past £100billion could also see HS2 end at Old Oak Common in London’s western suburbs.
However, Mr Sunak has been hit by a massive backlash — with Boris Johnson, Theresa May and George Osborne all queueing up to urge him to think again.
West Midlands Mayor Mr Street made an impassioned last-ditch appeal last night to bring in the private sector to finish the railway to ease the pressure on taxpayers.
He told a hastily convened press conference: “You will be turning your back on an opportunity to level up — a once-in-a-generation opportunity. You will indeed be damaging your international reputation as a place to invest.”
And Manchester’s Mr Burnham described the axing as “profoundly depressing”.
He said: “This will be remembered as the conference when they pulled the plug on us.
“What gives them the right to treat people here in Greater Manchester and the North of England as second-class citizens?”
Amid the bickering about railways, ex-PM Liz Truss popped up to slam Mr Hunt and Mr Sunak’s agenda.
Most read in The Sun
To rousing applause on the conference fringes, she said: “We need to acknowledge government is too big, taxes are too high and we are spending too much.”
READ MORE SUN STORIES
She urged the ministers to “unleash their inner Conservative” and build more houses and give the green light to fracking for shale gas.
4
4
Topics