Failure to complete HS2 will be betrayal of levelling up promises, voters warn

01 October 2023 , 15:26

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The HS2 line between Manchester and Birmingham is expected to be canned (Image: Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock)

Failure to complete HS2 will be a betrayal of the Tories’ promises to level up the country, voters have warned as Rishi Sunak prepares to mutilate the project.

The PM is preparing to use his first party conference as leader to ditch the leg of the high speed line between Manchester and Birmingham. But the gathering turned into civil war as soon as it started on Sunday as his ministers and MPs squabbled over how to avoid the threat of electoral oblivion.

Polling shows Mr Sunak faces a backlash from the public if he backtracks on plans for HS2 to go to North West England. A survey found almost three quarters (72%) of the public already think London and the South East get much more money spent on them than the rest of the UK. The feeling is even stronger in the northern half of England where 83% said this is what they believe.

Nearly 7 in 10 (69%) of UK adults agreed that a “failure to complete HS2 would be a failure to level up the rest of the UK”, with just 10% who disagreed. The polling was commissioned by the West Midlands Combined Authority which is run by Tory mayor Andy Street. It will ramp up pressure on Mr Sunak who faces a bumpy first party conference as leader.

He appeared not to have control of his ministers as Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove demanded tax cuts before the next election. Other Cabinet ministers appear determined to use the conference to begin positioning for the next leadership contest.

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In a newspaper interview, Home Secretary Suella Braverman hit back at Sir Elton John after he criticised her for claiming some people pretend to be gay. She insisted that her celebrity critics were "out-of-touch pampered elites" who were "virtue-signalling".

Her rival Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch put pressure on the PM to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights. She said that it is "definitely something that needs to be on the table". She also suggested that climate change targets should be watered down even further.

Jon Ashworth, Shadow Paymaster General, said: “Rishi Sunak is desperate for people to think he’s in charge. But even his own cabinet don’t believe him and are using this week to jockey for position in the race to replace him. On issues from tax to HS2, the weak PM can’t say whether he’s going to u-turn on his own policies or carry on doing what Liz Truss and his party tell him to.”

The Labour frontbencher added: “Day one of the Tory conference is proving the party is too divided and too distracted to take Britain forward, while Rishi Sunak is too weak to do anything about it.”

Ahead of the gathering, Theresa May became the third former Tory prime minister to urge him not to scale back the major transport project following interventions from Boris Johnson and David Cameron.

West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin said: “Time and again this government has ignored the needs of Northerners. Rather than levelling up opportunities, as they promised, this government is levelling down at every opportunity.”

Former Tory chairman Jake Berry criticised suggestions that HS2 cash could be put into building Northern Powerhouse Rail between Liverpool and Hull. "Why in the north of England should it be an either or?" he told Times Radio. "In my ideal world, both of them would be built." Dehenna Davison, who last month stood down as a Levelling Up minister, said: "I think it's right we crack on and do it."

Analysis by IPPR North shows that between 2010 and 2020, the North received just £349 per person in transport spending, compared to £864 per person in London. The overall figure for the UK was £430 per person.

The Mirror revealed on Saturday that Mr Sunak is set to announce billions of pounds for road and rail projects this week in a bid to sugarcoat his decision to axe the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2. On Sunday he denied his failure to announce a decision on the future of the high speed rail line is making the UK a "laughing stock" as critics have warned. The Prime Minister told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: "I'd completely reject that.”

Portland Communications interviewed 3,012 adults online in the UK on September 25.