Rishi Sunak will deliver his keynote speech on Wednesday to close the Conservative Party conference.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tours the Exhibitor’s Hall, at the Manchester Central convention complex, during the Conservative Party annual conference. Picture date: Tuesday October 3, 2023.
The Tory mayor for the West Midlands, Andy Street, said scrapping the scheme while holding a conference in Manchester would be “an incredible political gaffe”.In the run-up to an election expected next year, Mr Street said it would give Labour the opportunity to claim Mr Sunak had decided to “shaft the north”.
The HS2 scheme was given a budget of £55.7 billion in 2015 but costs have ballooned, with an estimate of up to £98 billion – in 2019 prices – in 2020.Questions about the project have overshadowed Mr Sunak’s first party conference as Prime Minister, but the PM denied that proceedings in Manchester have been “chaotic”.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper acknowledged that “some people won’t like” the decision Mr Sunak makes on the scheme.“I think they are about to make an incredible political gaffe,” he warned. An expanded Northern Powerhouse Rail project linking cities, and cash for potholes and bus routes, could be announced to sweeten the pill of curtailing the project feared to have spiralled past £100 billion.
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