'Well, Prime Minister, is HS2 coming to Manchester or not?'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Rishi Sunak has refused to confirm whether plans for HS2, a high-speed rail train between London and Manchester, will make it to the city in a speech on Wednesday (September 20).

The Prime Minister said he was 'not going to speculate' on the plans after he was quizzed about the railway line by a journalist following his net zero statement at Downing Street.

It comes just days after the Government refused to guarantee that HS2 would be running to Manchester as originally planned amid reports that Mr Sunak was 'in talks to scrap the project's second stage' and about the soaring costs of the major rail project. READ MORE After years of planning the government has now REFUSED to guarantee HS2 rail line will run to Manchester READ MORE Avanti West Coast awarded new long-term contract to run Manchester to London trains Manchester city council previously urged Downing Street to 'provide assurances that the Birmingham-Manchester leg of HS2 is going ahead' - saying 'tens of thousands of jobs' and millions of pounds rely on its certainty.

It has been suggested, according to a leaked photograph published by The Independent, that the UK Government is considering scrapping the Birmingham to Manchester leg in a bid to save £35 billion, despite £2.3 billion having already been ploughed into stage two of the high-speed line.