Transport secretary Mark Harper has bragged about redeploying cash earmarked for the Network North project to fix roads in London after HS2 was controversially cut short at Birmingham.
The Department for Transport has sparked uproar for promoting a £235 million scheme to fix roads in the capital by using money stripped from a cancelled rail link in the North of England.
Rishi Sunak used his Tory conference speech in October to announce he was cancelling the northern leg of the rail line between Birmingham and Manchester.
He pledged to use the billions saved to fund other transport schemes in the North and Midlands that would miss out due to the axe falling.
But this week Harper has committed hundreds of millions of pounds to ensure road users “across London” have “smoother, faster, and safer journeys” by using “redirected HS2 funding to make the right long-term decisions for a brighter future”.
Responding to the post, Labour Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said: “‘Network North’ seems to include everywhere – except the North”.
While Bury South Labour MP Christian Wakeford, who crossed the floor from the Conservative Party in 2022, added: “Cancelling the Northern leg of HS2 to pump money into roads in London epitomises this tone deaf, pointless government riddled with meaningless platitudes rather than real ideas.
“The sooner we get rid of these bunch of shysters the better.”
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