Rishi Sunak says he should not be ‘rushed’ into taking HS2 decision – UK politics live | Politics

In an interview with Times Radio, in which he also refused to say what he would do about HS2, Rishi Sunak said that he had to reconsider the project because the costs had escalated “far beyond what anyone thought at the beginning”.

He said:

It’s clear that the costs of this programme has escalated far beyond what anyone thought at the beginning.

I know there’s lots of speculation on it, but what I would say is I’ll approach this in the same way I approach everything in this job, I will take the time to look at it properly, get across the detail and then decide what’s right for the country.

The sums involved are enormous and it’s right that the Prime Minister takes proper care over it.

It’s obviously not my money – it’s taxpayers’ money and we should make the right decisions on these things.

In his interview with BBC Breakfast this morning Rishi Sunak rejected claims that his handling of the HS2 decision had been poor. When it was put to him that delaying the decision meant this had been a “huge distraction” at conference, Sunak replied:

No, I don’t think that. Actually we’re having a great conference. The mood here is great.

And when it was put to him, again, that the HS2 story was overshadowing everything else at conference, and that this was a “mess” because all people were talking about at Manchester was the HS2 dithering, he replied:

I can tell you, because I’m at the conference, talking to all my MPs and everyone else, that’s not what they’re talking about.

What they’re talking about is our approach to net zero, which is saving their constituents £5,000, £10,000, £15,000 – an example of me making a long-term decision for the country, even when it’s not easy, even when I’m getting criticism, but because I believe it’s the right thing to do.

They’re talking about our backing of 55 towns across the country with long-term funding to help them change the destination of what’s happening around them.

They’re talking about what we’re doing today on Jade’s law. These are the things that people are talking about.

The Times this morning reports that Rishi Sunak is likely to announce his decision about HS2 in his conference speech tomorrow. The paper says that the Birmingham to Manchester leg will be axed, but that Sunak will go ahead with the six-mile link from Old Oak Common to Euston, in central London. At one point he was reportedly planning to axe this spur too, which would have resulted in HS2 terminating in north-west London, and the Birmingham to central London journey time being just as long as it is now.

Mhari Aurora from Sky News says No 10 sources have confirmed that the HS2 announcement will come in the speech tomorrow.

Good morning. Rishi Sunak has been doing a mini-interview round this morning, and not for the first time it has been dominated by him dodging questions about the future of HS2. For years to come this conference will serve as a case study for students of political spin who will try to work out why Sunak and his team went into this conference with this issue still lingering over it – neither resolved, nor decisively shelved until the autumn statement. No one in the press centre has a particularly good answer. Maybe some counter-intuitive, genius PR strategy is in play, but it feels more like old-fashioned cock-up.

In an interview with BBC Breakfast this morning, Sunak said he did not want to be “rushed” into a decision. Asked about HS2, he replied:

I know you want to keep asking, I know there’s lots of speculation, but all I can say is I’m not going to be forced into a premature decision because it’s good for someone’s TV programme. What I want to do is make the right decision for the country.

This is an enormous amount of people’s money, taxpayers’ money, billions and billions of pounds. We shouldn’t be rushed into things like that.

What people would expect from me is to take the time, go into it properly and make sure we make the right long term decision for the country. That’s what I’m interested in doing.

I think that’s what politicians should be doing. I think that’s what the country wants to see – people who make the right long-term decision, don’t take the easy way out, don’t chase the headlines. And that’s what I did with net zero.

The problem with Sunak saying that he should not be rushed is that all the reporting says the decision to scrap the link from Birmingham to Manchester has, in effect, already been taken.

I will post more from his interviews shortly.

Here is our overnight story on HS2.

And here is the agenda for the day.

11am: Steve Barclay, the health secretary, opens conference proceedings in the main hall. Other ministers speaking are Michelle Donelan, the science secretary, at 11.15am and Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, at 11.30am.

12.30pm: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, speaks at a Centre for Policy Studies fringe event.

2pm: Theresa May, the former prime minister, speaks at a fringe event.

3pm: Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, opens afternoon proceedings in the hall. He is followed by Suella Braverman, the home secretary, at 3.15pm.

4.15pm: Gove and Lord Frost speak at a fringe event on the future of Conservatism.

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