Rishi Sunak is still refusing to confirm HS2 is coming to Manchester

Rishi Sunak is still refusing to confirm whether HS2 will be coming to Manchester as planned.

Speaking on BBC Radio Manchester ahead of the Conservative Party conference which the city will be hosting next week, the Prime Minister was asked if the Northern leg of the project is being scrapped.

It comes after weeks of speculation over the future of the high-speed rail line following reports that the government is considering shelving the second phase amid concerns about spiralling costs and severe delays. But he refused to end the uncertainty when asked about it on 28 September.

In an interview on the local BBC radio station, presenter Anna Jameson asked him to tell the people of Greater Manchester if he is scrapping the HS2 line between Birmingham and Manchester.

He said: “I know there’s a lot of speculation on this but we’ve already got spades in the ground on the first bit of HS2 and what we’re doing is getting on with delivering it…

“It’s always right that the government is looking at things to make sure that we are doing things in a way that creates value for money. But what I would say is that HS2 is just one of the many things we are doing to level up across our country and it’s one of the many things that we’re doing to invest in the North and in transport infrastructure in the North.

“If you look right now we’re providing record sums to Greater Manchester in particular so that they can improve transport in and around the city, in the suburbs with the towns that are nearby, treating it in exactly the same way that London gets treated.”

The radio presenter continued to press the Prime Minister on the issue during the eight-minute interview. She said: “Sorry, I feel like we’re going off topic here and I just want to keep it focused on HS2 because you haven’t…

“We’re straight talking people here in the North. It’s a yes or a no.

“Are you scrapping HS2 line between Birmingham and Manchester?”

Responding, Mr Sunak said: “As I said, I’m not speculating on future things. We’ve got spades in the ground right now and we’re getting on… Government is always making sure that we get value for money out of everything we do.

“That’s a statement of the obvious.”

The Prime Minister talked about the importance of fixing potholes in roads, connecting towns and cities and investing in bus services. He also said he wants to improve east-to-west connectivity on the railways of the North.

However, responding to claims that the current plans for the east-to-west Northern Powerhouse Rail line depend on the future of HS2, he said these are ‘two quite different things’.

The Yorkshire MP said: “I’m over on the east side of the North. I know that connectivity across the Pennines is not good enough.

“It’s not just Liverpool to Manchester, it’s all the way across the North. That is probably the thing that would drive the most growth, create the most jobs.

“If we can get that right… we are investing in doing that, but we obviously need to go more, go further. But having greater frequency, greater capacity and shorter journey times all the way from Liverpool, all the way over to the east coast is actually, I think, the thing that would make the biggest difference to unlocking the massive potential across the North that we know is there, that can be realised with transport investment.”

Joseph Timan, Local Democracy Reporting Service