HS2: IT'S ALL GONE SOUTH..

Manchester link scrapped but Euston goes ahead

- JOHN STEVENS Political Editor and ASHLEY COWBURN Political Correspondent

THE scrapping of the northern HS2 link was attacked from all sides of the political divide yesterday, with Tory ex-PM David Cameron, saying Rishi Sunak's decision was "wrong".

The line will now run between Euston not Old Oak Common, as feared and Birmingham, but there will be no Manchester link.

Mr Cameron said it trashed 15 years of cross-party consensus and showed Britain was incapable of acting for the long-term good.

He said: "Today's announcement... will make it much harder to build consensus for any future long-term projects.

"I suspect many will look back at today's announcement and wonder how this once-in-a-generation opportunity was lost." Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said northern leaders had not been consulted over the Tories' incoherent transport plan, announced in the city.

He said: "This city region was entitled to more respect." In his conference speech, Mr Sunak tried to soften the HS2 blow by re-announcing road and rail projects the Tories had promised but failed to deliver, though he included the construction of a tram link to Manchester Airport - which opened in 2014.

Mr Sunak said axing the northern HS2 link and changes to the project to build thousands of houses around Euston station would save £36billion.

He pledged to "reinvest every single penny... in hundreds of new transport projects in the North and the Midlands, across the country".

He would upgrade the A1, A2, A5 and M6- despite these previously announced road plans being delayed by up to five years only six months ago by him.