Integrated Rail Plan: North and Midlands

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 11:15 am on 18 November 2021.

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Photo of Bob Seely Bob Seely Conservative, Isle of Wight 11:15, 18 November 2021

I congratulate the Secretary of State and his excellent team on this far more sensible approach. However, may I respectfully suggest that the lesson from the HS2 debacle—it is not so much a turkey as a turkey mixed with a white elephant—is that never again must a politician’s vanity project, and a New Labour one at that, be allowed to gather a head of steam? Secondly, is he sure that the £40 billion on the Birmingham to Crewe route is the best use of public money, when there would be far more support in this House for properly funding all the northern powerhouse? Thirdly, may I gently remind him that the Wessex routes are the most underfunded and overused in Britain?