Transport secretary Mark Harper ‘looking at options’ on HS2 rail link ahead of expected spending cuts
The new transport secretary has said the government is “looking at all of the options” over HS2 ahead of expected spending cuts.
Mark Harper would not commit to the plan for building the high speed rail project in full, saying “no decision has been made” on the Leeds to Manchester link.
HS2, along with Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), is a multi-billion pound project intended to create fast rail links between London and major cities in the Midlands and North of England.
Phase one will open between 2029 and 2033 and run from London to Birmingham over 134 miles.
However, phase two – which runs from Birmingham to Manchester via Crewe and had originally carried on to Leeds – has been shrouded in confusion after former prime minister Boris Johnson scrapped plans for a high speed link connecting Manchester and Leeds via Bradford – a decision his successor Liz Truss, while she was briefly prime minister, said she would reverse.
Asked if he will be “upholding what Liz Truss promised”, Mr Harper told Sky News the government “remains committed to delivering high speed two on time and within budget”.
In 2019, the government watered down its high speed rail plans, axing fast links between Leeds and Manchester via Bradford
But, pressed specifically on the line between Manchester and Leeds with a stop in Bradford, he said: “I think it’s fair to say things that the former prime minister (said), as Rishi Sunak made clear when he became prime minister, that for all the best motives, a number of mistakes were made.
“And he was elected as prime minister in part to fix them.”
Mr Harper acknowledged the Conservatives have made a manifesto commitment to get high speed trains to Leeds.
He said the government will be looking at “all the options” in light of decisions being taken in the autumn statement – when spending cuts and tax rises are expected as part of a plan to plug the UK’s £40bn black hole.
“And then we’ll be setting our plans in due course,” he said.
Calls for the full implementation of HS2 are loudest within the Tory red wall MPs who see it as a way to solidify their standing in northern seats.
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Transport secretary ‘looking at all the options’ on HS2
But there are complaints from the more fiscally hawkish wings of the Conservative Party as they see it as a waste of money swaddled in bureaucracy and delays.
The project has been beset by delays and rising costs with some estimates putting the total price tag at more than £100bn.
Before Ms Truss’s intervention over the Northern Powerhouse Rail link, the government said as part of its Integrated Rail Plan it wanted to build 40 miles of newbuild high speed line between Warrington, Manchester and Yorkshire (to the east of Standedge tunnels); upgrade and electrify conventional line for the rest of the route between Liverpool and York; and significantly improve the previous Transpennine Route between Manchester and Leeds, with electrification of the whole route.
But this was rolling back on the original plan which was to build a full, high speed rail line from Liverpool to Leeds via Manchester, with links to other cities in the North and Midlands.
On Sunday, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said investment in HS2 could be cut as a result of “mistakes” made by Liz Truss.
The UK is facing an economic crisis, with experts warning of an “unpalatable menu” of options to re-balance the nation’s finances after the fall-out from the previous administration’s disastrous mini-budget.
Any decision to cut spending on the project will likely be met with a backlash from northern leaders, who have previously accused the government of “betraying the north” after the plans were first watered down.
New pictures show the moment of impact as an Israeli missile hit a Beirut apartment block and exploded.
The block was one of five buildings destroyed by airstrikes on Friday alone.
Israel launched airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut in a fourth consecutive day of intense attacks.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press photographer captured a sequence of images showing an Israeli bomb approaching and hitting a multi-storey apartment building in Beirut’s Tayouneh area.
Richard Weir, a senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, reviewed the close-up photos to determine what type of weapon was used.
“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the strake, wire harness cover, and tail fin section, are consistent with a Mk-84 series 2,000-pound class general purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s joint directed attack munition tail kit,” he told AP.
Pics: AP
Smoke covers a building that collapses following the strike. Pic: AP
Deadly strikes as bombardment stepped up
Israel stepped up its bombardment this week – an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy towards a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other Hezbollah infrastructure. It issued a warning on social media identifying buildings ahead of the strikes.
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon’s state media said.
The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn’t provide their ages.
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Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.
Video footage also showed a building being struck and turning into a cloud of rubble and debris that billowed into Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.
Residents check the site of the airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut. Pic: AP
More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon during 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – most of them since mid-September.
About 27% of those killed were women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon from September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel.
Friday’s strikes come as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has asked Iran to help secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The prime minister appeared to urge Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.
Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, said that prospects for a ceasefire with Lebanon were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire to deliver an early foreign policy win to his ally, US President-elect Donald Trump.
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
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Elon Musk speaking at an event held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
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The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
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