Former chancellor George Osborne and ex-deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine said if the line was scrapped the government would 'only be known for what it cancelled and curtailed'.
And it is still unclear if the final section between Old Oak Common in west London and the planned central destination in the capital at Euston will go ahead.Grant Shapps hints at change to HS2
Cabinet minister Grant Shapps told Sky News' Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips show there could be a change to the"sequencing" and"pace" of"Money is not infinite," said the former transport secretary, who is now in charge of the Ministry of Defence. "All of these big decisions where budgets are, particularly in the case of HS2, inexorably going higher and higher and higher, and your viewers are having to pay that bill, it is absolutely right that the government looks at it and says: hold on a minute, is this just a sort of open-ended cheque or are we going to make sure this project gets delivered to a pace and a timetable that actually works for the...
"We take those long-term decisions seriously, but we don't think any amount of money, no matter how big the budget gets, that you should just carry on ploughing it in. There has to be a point where you say, hold on a minute, let's just take a break here." HS2 was first touted by Labour in 2009, but it was the coalition government that signed off the plan, designed to connected the South, Midlands and North of England with state-of-the-art infrastructure.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Former Tory PMs hit back at ‘desperate’ move to ditch HS2 to ManchesterBoris Johnson said rumoured cuts to HS2 were ‘Treasury driven nonsense’, with David Cameron also said to have intervened.
Read more »
Boris Johnson slams Rishi Sunak as 'HS2 leg to Manchester to be scrapped'The government has refused to deny reports the Manchester route will be scrapped
Read more »
Shapps says HS2 cannot have ‘open-ended cheque’ as Sunak set to wield axeThe leg of HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester is in doubt because of spiralling costs.
Read more »
Shapps says HS2 cannot have ‘open-ended cheque’ as Sunak set to wield axeThe leg of HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester is in doubt because of spiralling costs.
Read more »
'Colossal waste of public money': Khan slams plans to 'cut HS2 before Manchester'Rishi Sunak is facing growing criticism as he looks set to scrap the northern leg of HS2 due to soaring costs.
Read more »
Sunak urged to back HS2 to Manchester despite cost fearsFormer chancellor George Osborne said it would be a ‘gross act of vandalism’ to axe the northern leg of the high-speed network.
Read more »