Sunak to ‘abandon’ northern leg of promised HS2 scheme as he pulls funds

The Prime Minister is expected to confirm hushed plans to stop HS2 proposals in their tracks, in what will be a major blow to north-western communities.

The decision, it’s reported, was made public just minutes before Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was due to speak at the Tory party conference in Manchester today.

It has long been speculated that the plans, linking Manchester with London via a high-speed train route, would be abandoned – despite the Rishi Sunak remaining tight-lipped over the apparent change in decision. 

The billions of pounds in funding is set to be pulled from the long-promised scheme and reallocated to other transport projects in the north. It is not yet clear what they will be. 

Despite the apparent news spreading at the conference, a government source has told Express.co.uk “no decisions have been taken”.

For all the latest updates, follow our live blog below.

READ MORE: HS2 leg to Manchester ‘axed’ with billions moved to transport projects in north

Scrapping the northern leg would be ‘drastic’ says Priti Patel

Former home secretary Priti Patel told Times Radio cancelling the northern leg of HS2 to Manchester would be a “pretty drastic step”.

She added: “What kind of work have they done, what kind of analysis, what kind of assumptions?”

Ms Patel also refused to rule out a leadership bid.

She said: “I don’t know what will happen. I simply don’t know what will happen. What I do want, though, is for us to win the general election. And, you know, I’ll play my part in that. I can tell you that now as a campaigner.”

England’s ‘reputation at stake’ over HS2, claims Manchester mayor

Andy Burnham, mayor of Manchester, has further laid into government indecision over the extension of HS2 to Manchester.

Speaking at an industry reception in Manchester hosted by the High Speed Rail Group, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham urged Rishi Sunak to save the HS2 project.

“There’s a lot at stake here. Our reputation is at stake as a country,” he said.

“It is a strange feeling having people holed up in hotel rooms taking decisions that will have monumental implications for the future of this country.

“If that plug is pulled, in effect, it’s a statement that the north of England economy is going to be smaller in the 21st century than it might otherwise have been. It’s a message to here that they are second class citizens.”

What is HS2 and what is the Manchester link?

HS2 refers to a government scheme to create high-speed rail links between London and major cities in the Midlands and North of England.

It was suggested as part of Boris Johnson’s “levelling-up” agenda and is something Rishi Sunak has reportedly supported throughout his time in politics before he became Prime Minister.

The plan aims to cut journey times, create more space on the rail network, and more jobs outside London.

However, delays and spiralling costs have hampered progress on the plan.

Phase 1 – linking London to Birmingham – has had lots of work put into it already. 

A plan to extend it to Leeds was cancelled in 2021.

Now following warnings from Chancellor Jeremy Hunt that the costs were getting “out of control”, the already-delayed Birmingham – Manchester section of HS2 could also be scrapped.

HS2 must be rethought, says Andy Street

Conservative mayor for the West Midlands Andy Street has added to earlier comments that HS2 “must be completed”, saying that the government needs to think “radically” about how the link between Birmingham and Manchester can be achieved.

Speaking outside the entrance to The Midland Hotel in Manchester, where the Tory party conference is taking place, Mr Street said he recognises that Rishi Sunak has “inherited a difficult situation with HS2”, but that it is “right to try and get a grip of the situation”.

This does not mean “giving up”, Mr Street told the journalists present.

He insisted the rail project is “just as right now as it was 10 years ago”.

Street says he has been in conversation with several private sector organisations “wanting to come forward to find new, innovative ways” of completing HS2, as he makes a personal plea to Sunak to “stay the course”.

“There is a choice in front of [Sunak]: either cancel, as the rumours say… or work with us, engage with us, fully embrace private sector, hear out what they have to say”.

Lee Anderson urges decision on HS2 but says he will support PM either way

Deputy chairman of the Conservative Party Lee Anderson has urged the PM to come to a decision on HS2.

He claimed the costs had spiralled “out of control” amid uncertainty over the future of the Birmingham to Manchester connection, which the Express understands ministers have decided to cancel. 

Mr Anderson told GB News: “The whole country’s got to pay for this. Every single taxpayer in the UK has got to pay for this project, and it’s spiralling out of control.

“Now, I’m easy with it. If it goes ahead, I’ll support it, if they scrap it, I’ll support that, either way, but we need a decision and we need it very, very soon, because like I say the costs each week are out of control.”

He added: “I think if you gave the public a choice, especially in where I live, between high speed rail and better busses and tram services and local regional railways, they’ll go for the latter, obviously.”

Uncertainty over HS2 as risk of ‘undermining trust in politics’, says industry bosses

A spokesperson for the High Speed Rail Group, a group which champions various high speed rail projects across the UK, warned that uncertainty over the future of HS2 was leaving thousands of people in doubt and would ‘undermine trust in politics’.

They said: “Today’s further speculation about HS2 is both alarming and damaging. 30,000 people are out there on the route today, building this new railway, and they deserve to know whether they will be allowed to finish the job they have started.

“For years the Government has promised the north the required transport infrastructure to deliver a genuine northern powerhouse. To pull the rug from under them now would undermine trust in politics for millions of people.

“It is time to put this uncertainty to an end and for the Government to announce its intentions. Should they wish to rework or pause Phase 2, they need to keep the Phase 2 Bill going through Parliament and commit to completing the line into Euston. The main spending decision does not need to be taken until the point it passes, and keeping on track with the Bill will at least keep the option alive.”

HS2 shows Tories are ‘divided’, claims Labour

Louise Haigh MP, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary said of the confusion surrounding whether the HS2 extension would be cancelled today: “This fiasco shows the Conservatives are too divided and too distracted to take this country forward.

“After weeks of chaos and indecision on the biggest infrastructure project in the country, Rishi Sunak’s relaunch is now coming off the rails.

“This shambolic conference is showcasing precisely why working people cannot afford five more years of the Conservatives.”

Chair of anti-HS2 campaign group heralds ‘great news’

Penny Gaines, Chair of Stop HS2, has urged the Government to put this “white elephant out of its misery”.

She said: “Following on from on the pause of the route into Euston and the cancellation of the unviable eastern leg of HS2, cancelling another leg of HS2 would be great news, however this is very much death by a thousand cuts, it’s time the Government, put this white elephant out of its misery and cancelled HS2 in full.”

“The remaining section between the London suburbs and Birmingham clearly has no economic case and is causing huge environmental damage. There was never a good case for HS2 to start off with, and commuting patterns have massively changed over the last decade, especially with the pandemic.”

“HS2 should be cancelled in its entirety as soon as possible,” she added.

‘This will be remembered’ threatens Burnham

Manchester mayor Andy Burnham launched a searing rant against the Prime Minister over HS2.

Speaking at a ‘Centre for Cities’ event in Manchester, Mr Burnham said: “We’re still in the dark. This is wrong on so many levels. There are conversations going on in hotel rooms a stone’s throw from where we are about the future, basically, of the north of England and it’s economy because it’s that crucial and we’re just shut out completely.

“How can this be right? How can this be justified given that’s it’s almost ten years since George Osborne came to this city and said ‘you are going to get it all’? HS2 or HS3 as he called it at the time, platforms 15 and 16 at Piccadilly. You name it, we were going to get it. And then Boris (Johnson) comes five years after that and says in front of Stephenson’s rocket we’re gonna (do this)….

“You can’t do that can you. You can’t come and say all of that again fve years later when here we are it feels as though the’re getting ready to pull the plug on all of it.

“This will be remembered, won’t it, as the conference when they came here and the pulled the plug on us. Would they do it to other parts of the country? I keep asking that. What gives them the right to treat people here in Greater Manchester and across the north as second class citizens when it comes to transport? What gives them the right to do that?”

Cutting HS2 would be ‘catastrophic failure’, says Khan

Sadiq Khan has said cutting HS2 would represent a “catastrophic failure” by the government.

The London mayor said homes and businesses along the route have now been “destroyed for nothing”.

He added that travelling between Birmingham and London will now “take longer than existing routes”.

Sunak ‘bloody well has to’ finish HS2 project says Tory mayor

West Midlands mayor Andy Street has insisted the PM “bloody well has to” follow through with previous plans to build HS2 to Manchester.

At an event on the fringes of Conservative Party Conference, Mr Street – known as the most powerful Tory outside Westminster – said: “Certainty is critical, it is an absolutely fundamental point and it is what drives investment.”

Mr Street pointed to the success of last year’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games, which he said was the result of eight years of infrastructure investment.

The certainty was “utterly consistent” across political parties, “and that is what gave investors confidence,” he added.

“The parallels with HS2 are blindingly obvious,” Mr Street said.

Andy Burnham says he wants meeting with PM before ‘final decision’

Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has stated he wants a meeting with Rishi Sunak before a final decision is made on the extension of HS2.

He told LBC: “This is a conversation we’ve been shut out of so far and it’s not really good enough because it’s got epic implications for the north of England.

“If we get left with Victorian rail infrastructure in the northern half of the country with all the chaos that comes daily for people as a result of that, but the southern half has east-west and north-south lines, I mean goodness me where will the north-south divide be in the next 20-30 years if that is what happens?

“It’s frustrating. I have a pretty blunt message for ministers. Why is it always people in the north who are treated as a second class citizens when it comes to transport investment?”

Mr Burnham said he believed the Tories had “pretty much made the decision but have decided not to announce it because they’re here”.

What are the proposed economic benefits of HS2?

Business bosses in Manchester say HS2 – the largest infrastructure project in Europe – is supporting almost 30,000 jobs, including 1,300 apprenticeships, as it is being worked on.

Over 3,000 businesses in the UK have been awarded contracts for the development.

And over half of these small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with 96 percent of the supply chain sitting with UK businesses.

According to Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Northern businesses have won £1.7 billion worth of work from the construction of HS2.

More would be expected if the rail was extended to Manchester.

HS2, they argue, could double Greater Manchester’s economic output to £132bn by 2050.

Conservative Party conference ‘mired in chaos’ amid HS2 controversy

The Liberal Democrats said the Conservative Party’s annual conference had become “mired in chaos” following claims about the future of HS2.

Wera Hobhouse, the Lib Dems’ transport spokeswoman, said: “Rishi Sunak using a conference in Manchester to cancel the Northern leg of HS2 would make Liz Truss look like a political genius. Yet again, a Conservative Party conference has become mired in chaos while the country suffers.

“This would be a bitter blow for communities and businesses who have seen promise after promise broken by this Conservative government. The Conservatives have already trashed today’s economy, now it seems Rishi Sunak is doing everything he can to trash our future economy too.”

‘Couldn’t make it up!’ says Manchester Labour councillor

A Manchester councillor has hit out at the Prime Minister following reports that he intends to remove the Manchester leg of HS2.

Bev Craig wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “

Decision to be announced in due course, says spokesman

A spokesman for Chancellor Jeremy Hunt did not deny that plans surrounding axing the northern leg from Birmingham had been drawn up in the Treasury.

They said: “A decision will be announced in due course. It’s not the Treasury’s announcement … it’s for the Prime Minister.”

According to PA, Rishi Sunak is expected to overrule the concerns of Tory grandees, business and northern leaders by announcing a scrapping of HS2 to Manchester after being presented with plans from the Treasury.

Downing Street insists that “no final decisions” have been made as the Conservative Party holds its annual conference in Manchester.

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