END THE SHAMBLES

BURNHAM BLAST AT TORIES AS REPORTS EMERGE THAT THEY WILL SCRAP MANCHESTER LEG OF HS2-BUT PARTY INSISTS INFORMATION IS 'INCORRECT'

- JOHN SCHEERHOUT , JOSEPH TIMAN

ANDY Burnham has led a surge of angry responses from among Labour politicians across Greater Manchester after reports emerged that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has decided to axe the Manchester leg of HS2.

After days of speculation that the Birmingham to Manchester section of the high-speed rail link would be scrapped, it was widely reported yesterday that the PM had decided to shelve the northern section of the line.

It came as the Tory party conference was being held in Manchester. No 10 said that some reports on the plans were 'incorrect, but did not set out which details were wrong and did not deny that a Cabinet meeting would be arranged.

Mr Sunak's set-piece speech at the Manchester conference - where the party slogan is 'long-term decisions for a brighter future' - is scheduled for tomorrow.

Mr Burnham led the fury expressed by Labour politicians across Greater Manchester.

Speaking at a 'Centre for Cities' fringe event in Manchester, he 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)...