Sunak sparks Tory civil war with scrapping of HS2 Manchester leg

Rishi Sunak was accused of the ‘biggest and most damaging U-turn in the history of UK infrastructure’. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Rishi Sunak unleashed a Tory civil war on Wednesday by announcing the scrapping of the northern leg of HS2 as the former prime minister David Cameron said the decision showed the country was heading in the wrong direction.

After days of frenzied speculation over the future of the flagship levelling-up project, Sunak confirmed he was axing the Birmingham to Manchester line and would use the £36bn of savings to fund a number of other transport schemes, described as “Network North”.