Council spent millions on HS2 before Sunak wielded axe

...AND THOUSANDS MORE ON CONFERENCE WHERE PM MADE ANNOUNCEMENT

- SHIKHAR TALWAR AND JOSEPH TIMAN

MANCHESTER council spent more than £3m on the HS2 line that was supposed to reach the city before it was scrapped by Rishi Sunak earlier this year.

The prime minister said he would cancel the Northern leg of the high-speed rail line, promising to spend the £36bn saved on other transport projects, in his keynote speech at the Tory party conference which was held in Manchester in October.

Since 2009, when the major infrastructure project was announced, Manchester council has spent £3.3m on the scheme. This includes paying for consultants, preparing to make representations in Parliament and travel expenses for meetings related to the HS2 project.

Local leaders accused the government of trying to 'embarrass' Manchester by making the decision to cancel phase 2 of the railway programme without talking to them about it and announcing the decision at the Conservative Party conference hosted in the city. The M.E.N. can now reveal the council spent nearly £32,000 on the conference held at the Manchester Central Convention Complex.

This includes money spent on traffic management, additional street cleaning during the conference and extra barriers installed in public areas. The total cost for all of this, which has been revealed following a Freedom of Information request, came to £31,794.72.