HS2 news - live: Sunak insists he’s committed to levelling up as rail backlash grows

Labour has declined to say whether it would press ahead with building the northern leg of HS2 amid reports that Rishi Sunak is about to scrap it amid soaring costs and several delays.

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow paymaster general, said his party supported building the line between Birmingham and Manchester but could not make any promises without a review of the public finances.

Speaking to TalkTV, Mr Ashworth called on Mr Sunak to clarify his position after the prime minister did not confirm whether the plan would go ahead, saying he would not comment on what he described as “speculation”.

More comments from Mr Ashworth below:

The Tory MP for Crewe, Kieran Mullan, has also warned against axing HS2’s northern leg, Adam Forrest reports. “What has become of the UK, the original home of the railways?” Mr Mullan said.

“Do not leave the UK business community and, in fact, the world business community, doubting whether we can ever deliver on big and bold projects, or whether we can be a trusted investment partner,” he wrote in the i. “Don’t send the wrong message about the potential locked up in the North and the Midlands.”

Steve Brine, chair of the health select committee, said it would look “odd” to scrap the scheme in the days before Tory MPs and activists arrive in Manchester for their annual conference on Sunday.

“It would seem very odd for us to be in Manchester next week and can a project to Manchester,” Mr Brine told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour. “It would seem very odd not to bring this new rail line into central London and just stop it at Old Oak Common. So I really hope a way can be found to do this.”

A leading Conservative party donor has threatened to pull funding if Rishi Sunak scraps the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2, Adam Forrest reports.

The anonymous donor told The Guardian: “Generations of my family have been proud to support what was the party of business. We’ve given year in, year out for decades and been active in the party.

“But I’ve spoken to other donors, and several of them feel – possibly for the first time ever – recent events seriously call into question the ability to continue to support people who don’t do what they say they’d do.”

Jürgen Maier, former chief executive of Siemens UK, said: “The business community is in total shock and investor confidence is as low as I have ever seen it in my long years of engaging with our government.”

The vice-chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership told Channel 4 News that building HS2 without the northern leg would make it the “most useless and most expensive piece of high-speed line in the whole of Europe”.

One week ago, Labour’s shadow minister without portfolio, Nick Thomas-Symonds, was unequivocal about the party’s commitment to High Speed 2, Simon Calder reports.

He told the BBC’s PM programme on 18 September: “We will build HS2 in full, and we will build Northern Powerhouse Rail in full. That’s the clear pledge that we’ve given.”

Evan Davis, the presenter, then intervened, saying: "Just to be clear, when you say ‘in full’ do you mean to Manchester, or do you mean to Leeds as well as Manchester – that was the original vision?

Mr Thomas-Symonds replied: “It’s both to Manchester and indeed the eastern leg that you have referred to to Leeds, but also Northern Powerhouse Rail across from Liverpool to Leeds – indeed the new line through Bradford.”

Six days later, though, Labour watered down the promise. Darren Jones, the new shadow chief secretary for the Treasury, said: “The Labour Party would love to see HS2 built, including the branch to Leeds. We’ve long said that.”

But he said no commitment could be made until "proper" information had been made available by the government.

Michael Heseltine, former deputy PM, said the “essence” of levelling up was linking the north to the more “prosperous” south, Adam Forrest reports.

The Tory grandee warned of a “slippery slope” in the loss of confidence among investors.

“A vital part of it is HS2, so if they now cancel that vital part – the Birmingham to Manchester bit – that would send a very clear signal that the levelling up agenda has been put on deep freeze,” he told Sky News.

Lord Heseltine said the countryside had been ripped up “to build, potentially, a kind of toy town rail”. He added: “Who wants a faster rail between London and Birmingham [alone]? And it’s not even there, because it doesn’t even go to Euston.”

Tory former chancellor George Osborne penned an op-ed with Lord Heseltine warning that axing the Manchester route would be a “gross act of vandalism”.

More comments from Lord Heseltine and Mr Osbourne in the clip and story below:

Rishi Sunak is facing open revolt from the top of his own party, key advisers and business leaders over HS2 after The Independent’s revelations about plans to ditch the multibillion-pound project.

Two former Tory prime ministers, the government’s infrastructure tsar, northern powerhouse groups and mayors both north and south all came out on Saturday to slam Mr Sunak.

Jon Stone reports:

Rishi Sunak has insisted he is committed to levelling up despite declining to back building HS2 to the north in the face of warnings by senior Tories not to axe the rail project, Adam Forrest reports.

Grilled on HS2 while visiting a community centre in Hertfordshire, the PM 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 it 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.”

Andy Burnham has called for a general election if the Tories want to scrap the northern leg of HS2, adding they have “no mandate to do it”, Archie Mitchell reports.

The mayor of Greater Manchester has said going ahead with plans to cut phase two of the project would turn the north south divide into a “chasm”.

Mr Burnham told Times Radio: "The Conservative Party stood before voters here in Bolton and said, we will level you up, we will invest in the north of England, we will ensure that the north gets the same standard of infrastructure as elsewhere.

“And if they pull the plug, well quite frankly, those commitments that they made will be utterly meaningless. And I would say they shouldn’t really be taking this decision without calling a general election because it would just not be right for them to do what they’re reportedly planning to do when they do not have a mandate to do it."

He added that scrapping the northern leg would “leave the north of England with Victorian rail infrastructure for the rest of this century, while the southern half of the country has modern high speed lines”.

While the future of intercity rail remains unclear, it is certain that no trains will run on the West Coast main line next Saturday, 30 September, nor on Wednesday 4 October, Simon Calder reports. The train drivers’ union, Aslef, has announced the next round of industrial action in its long and bitter dispute with 14 English train operators over pay, jobs and working conditions.

Drivers will walk out on 30 September and 4 October, triggering the cancellation of thousands of trains on each day and wrecking millions of planned journeys.

In addition the union has announced an overtime ban on Friday 29 September and from Monday 2 to Friday 6 October – disrupting rail travel for over a week. The strikes are timed to hit the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, which begins on Sunday 1 October – the day after the first walk-out – and ends on Wednesday 4 October, the day of the second stoppage.

Announcing the strike, Mick Whelan, Aslef’s general secretary, said: “While we regret having to take this action – we don’t want to lose a day’s pay, or disrupt passengers as they try to travel by train – the government, and the employers have forced us into this position.

“Our members have not, now, had a pay rise for four years – since 2019 – and that’s not right when prices have soared in that time. Train drivers, perfectly reasonably, want to be able to buy now what they could buy four years ago.”

Simon Calder has this analysis on the HS2 link from Old Oak Cmmon

Ministers have already said that the HS2 link from Old Oak Common in west London to Euston station may not open until 2040 – with leaks suggesting it may be abandoned completely, even though work at Euston is well under way, Simon Calder reports.

Writing earlier this year, travel correspondent Mr Calder said: “Old Oak Common is a scruffy, ill-defined area at the top end of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, adjoining Wormwood Scrubs – itself ambitiously described as a nature reserve.

"I imagine that, by the time the station opens, it will be called ‘West London Parkway’. But it won’t move any closer to the centre of the capital.

“A skeletal service will appropriately grind to a halt just west of Kensal Green cemetery, in a part of northwest London where almost no one wants to be.”

He described the plan as a “Ryanair” approach to placenames” – Europe’s biggest budget airline has long been ambitious in naming some of its less-celebrated airports).

“Inter-city rail journeys should not be inter-suburban,” he concluded. “Travellers deserve, and demand, better.”