Rishi Sunak has faced criticism from his predecessors in Number 10 for losing a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” by cancelling the northern leg of HS2.
The Prime Minister defied senior Tories and business leaders to scrap HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester saying “the facts have changed” and the cost of the high-speed rail scheme had “more than doubled”.
But former Tory prime minister David Cameron said the decision would fuel the view that Britain cannot act for the long-term and is “heading in the wrong direction”.
Boris Johnson, another former Conservative prime minister, wrote “I agree” in response to Mr Cameron’s scathing post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Sunak confirmed HS2 will run from Euston in central London to Birmingham but will no longer extend beyond the West Midlands, with Manchester among the areas missing out.
Instead, Mr Sunak promised to use £36 billion of savings from scrapping sections of HS2 to fund a raft of other transport schemes.
Labour mocked Chancellor Jeremy Hunt over the policy change by highlighting previous remarks he made while a backbencher.
Mr Hunt wrote on Twitter in February 2020: “No HS2 = no ambition for our country just when the whole world is looking at us. Now is a time to be AMBITIOUS.”
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves highlighted the post and wrote: “How’s it going, Jeremy?”
West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin, meanwhile, criticised Sunak for his “pure electioneering” after his transport announcements.
The Labour politician told Channel 4 News: “This doesn’t work for north-to-south, it doesn’t work east-to-west, and what we’re seeing in this plan is a decade of rail replacement buses with electrification.”
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