As Rishi Sunak confirms rest of HS2 rail link to be scrapped

Jacob Rees-Mogg has suggested the money from HS2 should instead be used to scrap a tax that affects only 4% of the richest families.

Rishi Sunak has now confirmed that the rest of the HS2 rail link will in fact be scrapped, during his Tory Party conference speech today and following much speculation on the topic that, to his frustration, has dominated his party conference.

This will come as relief to Tory MPs like Rees-Mogg, who previously said of the rail line: “It should be put out of its misery, it should be humanely destroyed.”

Rees-Mogg argued: “It’s a vast waste of taxpayers’ money on a railway that doesn’t do anybody any good.”

The Tories pro-motorist agenda is well and truly in full gear, as Rees-Mogg argued in an interview with journalist Emily Maitlis, that car drivers should instead be prioritised and how the money should instead be used to cut taxes.  

“Yes, I think that would be a very good idea, I think you could use that money to get rid of inheritance tax for example.”

The mega-rich former cabinet member thinks that scrapping a tax that brings in over £6bn of tax revenue, but affects 4% of the population, would be the best use of money initially meant to better connect people in the North of the country.

Andy Burnham called Moggs comments “unambitious”, as the Mayor of Manchester spoke out today condemning the scrapping of the rest of the HS2 line in the North as a ‘betrayal’.

Burnham slammed the party from all angles, blasting the move as the, “desperate last acts of a dying government”.

“So, in other words, HS2 won’t go to Manchester and people in the North will be treated as second-class citizens – again? What a disgrace,” wrote Burnham.

Whilst the Tory West Midlands mayor Andy Street had said he was ‘considering quitting’ over the HS2 U-turn.

In line with Rishi Sunak’s battle against an apparent ‘war on motorists’, Rees-Mogg said HS2 was getting too expensive, but argued that if the government went over budget on road infastructure, that would be fine, as train travel was not as important.

He argued on Sky News: “We have a romantic obsession with railways that’s seen us spend far too much on railways and not enough on roads.”

“People like driving in their cars,” he added. To which Kay Burley replied, “that’s because it’s not fast enough on the train.”

Sunak has pledged to “reinvest every penny” of the HS2 savings – estimated at £36bn – in other transport connections in the North, the Midlands and across the country.

Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward, focusing on trade unions and environmental issues

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