Two former Prime Ministers hit out at government over HS2
It's after the government refused to deny reports it will scrap the Manchester leg of the project
Two former Prime Ministers have hit out at the government, amid continued reports that the Manchester leg of HS2 will be scrapped.
Boris Johnson said suggestions the Birmingham to Manchester route could be chopped over cost concerns were "desperate" and "Treasury-driven nonsense"
David Cameron has also privately raised significant concerns about the prospect that the high-speed rail line could be heavily altered, according to The Times.
An ally quoted by the newspaper said it was "unusual" for the former prime minister, who resigned after the Brexit referendum result in 2016, to intervene in politics but felt HS2 was "different".
"He thinks it's not only important in its own right - it's central to levelling up - but also that it's a totemic Conservative pledge," the anonymous ally told The Times.
Rishi Sunak has refused to guarantee it will reach Manchester despite ÂŁ2.3 billion having already been ploughed into stage two of the national line.
A photograph of a leaked document, published by The Independent, suggested curtailing the route could save ÂŁ35 billion.
The planned railway - announced by the last Labour government but backed by successive Tory administrations - is intended to link London, the Midlands and the North of England but has been plagued by delays and rising costs.
Boris Johnson, who won a landslide general election for the Tories four years ago, said: "This is total Treasury driven nonsense. It makes no sense at all to deliver a mutilated HS2.
"We need to connect the Midlands with the North with HS2 because that is the way to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail.
"It is the height of insanity to announce all this just before a party conference in Manchester.
"It is no wonder that Chinese universities teach the constant cancellation of UK infrastructure as an example of what is wrong with democracy.
"We need to get back to the 2019 agenda of uniting and levelling up our country.
"These desperate truncations won't even yield any short term savings and make no difference to the case for tax cuts."