"That is a recipe for levelling DOWN... we won't forget it": Andy Burnham rails against possible plans 'to scrap Birmingham to Manchester HS2 leg'

The government is set to axe the HS2 leg to Manchester, according to reports this week. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has now said that if the government goes through with abandoning the major rail build, 'as political betrayals go, it's one of the biggest we've ever seen'.

The Conservative government has in the last few days refused to deny it was considering axing the Birmingham to Manchester leg. Reports have since emerged in the Times last night that yet another northern section of the long-awaited rail project will be chopped.

The plans have been slammed by former Conservative Prime Ministers, however. Boris Johnson said suggestions the Manchester route could be chopped over cost concerns were 'desperate' and 'Treasury-driven nonsense' as he urged Rishi Sunak to deliver on the 2019 levelling-up pledge the Conservatives were elected on.

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This morning, at the launch of the Bee Network which sees Greater Manchester's bus services be brought under public control by local leaders, mayor Andy Burnham made an 'eleventh hour' plea to the government.

"It's so frustrating," Mr Burhnam told the Manchester Evening News today (September 24). "Here we are, Greater Manchester itself doing something to improve transport services for people, we are levelling ourselves up.

"This was meant to be the levelling up Parliament, but as we come to the end of it, what we're seeing is increasing rumours that the government is going to cut Manchester out of the new high-speed system. In effect, what they're going to do is leave the southern half of the country with modern high-speed lines, but the northern half of the country stuck with