Minister refuses to rule out resurrecting northern leg of HS2

A Treasury minister has refused to rule out resurrecting the HS2 railway line north of Birmingham.

Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said Labour would have a “conversation” with Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, about the future of the high-speed route after the northern leg was scrapped by Rishi Sunak.

Mr Burnham announced in February this year that he was exploring a number of alternative options to the section ditched by the Tories, including a proposal for a new, lower-speed line roughly along the same route.

In an interview with Sky News on Monday morning, Mr Jones was told that Mr Burnham “wants HS2 reinstated”.

He replied: “I am sure Andy Burnham will have lots of things on his agenda. We will have to talk to Andy Burnham about that. I know that he was working with some other private investors and other mayors to put together proposals.”

Asked if he was ruling it out, Mr Jones said: “We are going to collaborate with our mayors and devolved leaders, we are going to work with them on the local growth plans… 

“We are not going to be able to do everything and there is going to be difficult trade-offs and we have inherited a very difficult fiscal situation, that is clear.

“But we can do things to start with and then of course if there are medium and long-term aspirations we will work with partners to deliver them.”

Asked again if he was ruling it out, Mr Jones said: “We will have the conversation with the mayor and see what his proposals are.”

Mr Sunak scrapped the northern leg of HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester in October 2023.

Setting out possible alternatives in February, together with Andy Street, now the former Tory mayor of the West Midlands, Mr Burnham presented three options drawing on private funds, which were all said to cost “considerably less” than HS2.

As well as the new, lower speed line, which would be mostly for passengers, these included enhancing the existing West Coast Main Line and adding bypasses to the busiest sections.

At the time, Mr Burnham said that a “do nothing” approach was “not an option” because that would be “damaging to economic growth in the regions” and “leave the UK with quite a serious transport headache for the rest of this century”.

The mayors did not provide any cost estimates.

When he announced the axing of the HS2 northern leg, Mr Sunak promised to reinvest “every single penny” of the £36 billion previously earmarked for the scheme into hundreds of new transport projects.

The decision to scrap the section was criticised by Lord Cameron and Boris Johnson, who accused Mr Sunak of throwing away a “once-in-a-generation opportunity”.

HS2 was not mentioned by name in the Labour manifesto. However, the party did vow to improve rail connectivity “across the north of England”.