NICOLA Sturgeon has held "secret" talks with Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham in a bid to make UK ministers spend £3 billion connecting Scotland to the HS2 rail project.
The UK Government scrapped plans to let Scotland benefit from the high-speed rail project as it looked to save money amid a spiralling budget.
The 13-mile "Golborne Link" near Manchester would have connected the HS2 line to Glasgow and Edinburgh but a revised plan cut it out following warnings that the budget could surge to nearly £100bn. That would make it Europe's biggest infrastructure project.
