Keeping track of HS2 is not an easy job, with costs spiralling, delivery dates slipping and routes changing since it was first proposed by Gordon Brown’s Labour government in 2010.
It was originally envisaged as a Y-shaped network which would go from London Euston to Birmingham, with two spurs to Manchester and Leeds. Every prime minister since Brown – David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – supported HS2, though in 2021 under Johnson’s government the Leeds leg was axed. Rishi Sunak – whose North Yorkshire constituency will not benefit from the current plans – now has to decide whether to scrap the Manchester leg.
