Poll: Do you think Manchester needs HS2 rail?

The future of the high-speed HS2 rail link to Manchester is hanging in the balance, as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt reportedly assess whether it's worth the money.

The news has prompted outrage from northern leaders and council chiefs, who have called for an urgent meeting with the Government to clarify the situation.

Five northern mayors including the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, have united to call for HS2 to be delivered to Manchester in full, as promised. Their comments follow increasing concern from business voices in Greater Manchester, and a plea from the council for the Government to commit to the line in full.

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The mayors have said a failure to deliver the line in full to Manchester would 'leave swathes of the North with Victorian infrastructure unfit for purpose'.

Northern Powerhouse Rail - crucial and much-needed east-west rail links between Manchester and outlying towns and cities - is also intertwined with HS2's creation, as lines are shared.

The project - which Gordon Brown's Labour government set up in 2009 with the creation of HS2 Ltd - was envisaged to link some of the country's largest cities and towns to London, through the Midlands up to Manchester from Euston.

The 225mph railway was originally planned to run from Euston to Manchester and Leeds via Birmingham. A planned HS2 extension to Leeds was shelved in November, 2021. Then it was confirmed in March that construction between Birmingham and Crewe would be delayed by two years, and that