Rishi Sunak has declined to back building HS2 to the North in the face of warnings by senior Tories that axing the line to Manchester would be a “gross act of vandalism”.
The prime minister is understood to be considering scrapping or delaying the leg of the high speed rail network from Birmingham to Manchester in response to soaring costs.
Former chancellor George Osborne and ex-deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine said the move would mean “abandoning” the North and Midlands.
Writing in The Times, they warned the prime minister: “Governments are remembered for what they build and create.
“Make this mistake and yours may only be known for what it cancelled and curtailed.”
If the northern section was cancelled “the remaining stump, little more than a shuttle service from Birmingham to a London suburb, would become an international symbol of our decline”, they said.
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“The government should examine why other European countries have been able to build high-speed rail more cheaply, and bring the same review of planning for big energy infrastructure to transport projects that it is promising.
“That’s a sensible serious way forward; not the gross act of vandalism that cancelling HS2 would represent.”
The letter followed days of speculation about the fate of the northern line, with multiple reports suggesting a meeting between the prime minister and chancellor to make the final decision could happen before this weekend’s Conservative Party conference.
However on Monday Mr Sunak refused to be drawn on the matter when asked how he could be committed to levelling up while considering rowing back on the rail project.
Speaking from a community centre in Hertfordshire he said: “I’m not going to comment on that type of speculation. But what I would say is we’re absolutely committed to levelling up and spreading opportunity around the country, not just in the North but in the Midlands, in all other regions of our fantastic country.
“And transport infrastructure is a key part of that, not just big rail projects, but also local projects, improving local bus services, fixing pot holes, all of these things make a difference in people’s day-to-day lives.”
Pressed yes or no whether the Manchester leg will go ahead, Mr Sunak insisted: “This kind of speculation that people are making is not right. We’ve got spades in the ground, we’re getting on and delivering.”
It is still unclear if the final section between Old Oak Common in west London and the planned central destination in the capital at Euston will go ahead.
Cabinet minister Grant Shapps told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips show there could be a change to the “sequencing” and “pace” of HS2 from the government due to the soaring price tag.
“Money is not infinite,” said the former transport secretary, who is now in charge of the Ministry of Defence.
“All of these big decisions where budgets are, particularly in the case of HS2, inexorably going higher and higher and higher, and your viewers are having to pay that bill, it is absolutely right that the government looks at it and says: hold on a minute, is this just a sort of open-ended cheque or are we going to make sure this project gets delivered to a pace and a timetable that actually works for the taxpayer?
“We take those long-term decisions seriously, but we don’t think any amount of money, no matter how big the budget gets, that you should just carry on ploughing it in. There has to be a point where you say, hold on a minute, let’s just take a break here.”
HS2 was first touted by Labour in 2009, but it was the coalition government that signed off the plan, designed to connected the South, Midlands and North of England with state-of-the-art infrastructure.
Despite billions being poured into the project it has been beset by delays and rising costs – with the eastern leg scrapped entirely and work between Birmingham and Crewe delayed due to the impact of inflation.
Some estimates have put the total cost at over £100bn, while the project has been rated “unachievable” by the infrastructure watchdog.
However, plans to scrap the northern leg have been criticised on all sides of the political spectrum.
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