Nearly a QUARTER of the £36bn Rishi Sunak is saving by scrapping the Manchester leg of HS2 is to be spent on fixing potholes, it has emerged.
And a dossier released by the government after the Prime Minister's speech in Manchester reveals that 60 per cent of the £8.3bn to 'tackle the scourge of potholes' will be spent OUTSIDE the North of England.
After finally confirming the flagship high speed rail project would no longer connect Birmingham and Manchester, Mr Sunak today pledged to 'reinvest every single penny, £36bn, in hundreds of new transport projects in the North and the Midlands, across the country'. READ MORE: HS2 Manchester link cancelled by Rishi Sunak - live updates and reaction READ MORE:'The north always gets the s*** end of the stick' This includes the creation of what he named 'Network North', which involves improvements to road, rail and bus schemes.
A 40-page report by the Department for Transport justifying the move was released after the speech, despite the PM telling broadcasters only 24 hours earlier that no decision had yet been taken on HS2.
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