As the fallout from last week’s announcement on the cancelling of HS2, the Transport Secretary Mark Harper has said that replacement transport projects were merely examples
When asked why a series of commitments made by Rishi Sunak last week to build new transport projects around the country have now been deleted he told the BBC’s Laura Keunssberg programmes that they were merely “examples” of the “sorts of things that that money could be spent on”
The announcement included a commitment to build Manchester’s Metrolink network to Manchester Airport when the line actually opened nine years ago
Asked by Victoria Derbyshire why when Sunak backed HS2, then he scrapped it, Johnson backed a new station in Bradford, then scrapped it, then Truss reinstated it, then Sunak scrapped it as PM… this is more inconsistency and uncertainty for voters?,Harper replied “No, it’s not”
Earlier on Sky News Harper was asked
“In July, you tweeted that HS2 would connect our largest cities creating thousands of jobs” replying that “We’re still building HS2 from Euston to Birmingham.. And we’re seeing increasing cost pressures”
“Didn’t you know that in July?” he was then asked to which he replied “Yes”
