Mounting Cabinet revolt threatens to sink the HS2 rail link

A growing Cabinet revolt is threatening to sink the HS2 rail link. Ministers are alarmed by the project’s spiralling costs and are ‘increasingly minded to kill it off’, says a senior source Although ministers publicly insist it will go ahead, the Cabinet source told of rising dissent. HS2 opponents are said to include Theresa May’s deputy David Lidington Tonight’s investigation, for Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, claims that although published national accounts show HS2 will rise to an average cost of £4.2billion a year over the next ten years, ministers have secretly allocated up to £6billion a year. We just don’t know whether there would have been a better way of spending the money.’ Phase one of the high-speed rail link will open between London and Birmingham in December 2026 before the railway is extended to Crewe, Manchester and Leeds by 2033 Alistair Darling, who was chancellor when HS2 Limited was set up to build the line ten years ago, tells Dispatches the project should now be scrapped. ‘The risk is money simply gets taken out of where you need to be spending it to fund one project – and that will be very bad for the country, both economically and politically.’ A Department for Transport spokesman said: ‘HS2 is already underway with 7,000 people and 2,000 businesses working on building what will become the backbone of Britain’s rail network.