NEWS STORY : Transport Secretary Unable to Confirm Situation on HS2 as Third Former Conservative Prime Minister Warns Against Delay
STORY
Mark Harper, the Secretary of State for Transport, has said that he is unable to make any comment on the future of HS2, despite Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, having raised the suggestion that it could be cut back. Harper said in a statement:
“If the government has anything to say, we’ll say that in the usual way, in due course.”
Theresa May, the former Prime Minister, joined in with other former Conservative leaders David Cameron and Boris Johnson, in warning against any cuts to HS2. She said:
“We have to think about why HS2 was designed in the first place. It was because there was a lack of capacity on the west coast mainline. So if there is a lack of capacity on the west coast mainline, we need more railway capacity to serve the north-west.”
She added:
“If HS2 stops at Old Oak Common, it is going to make our railway journeys into London longer and disrupted potentially over the period that Old Oak Common’s building is being done to enable it to take that end point. So I am arguing with government: ‘Don’t stop at Old Oak Common. You need to take it into Euston because my constituents will be disadvantaged if you don’t.”
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