Why the Tory rebellion over Boris Johnson’s HS2 plan has run out of track

Backbenchers accept they must be ‘gracious in defeat’ but demand proper compensation for constituents, writes political editor Andrew Woodcock

An anti-HS2 sign in Harefield, Greater London (Getty)

Boris Johnson’s announcement that the first stages of HS2 are to go ahead came as a bitter disappointment to a number of Conservative MPs with constituencies sited along the route of the high-speed rail line.

HS2 cuts through several of the leafy shires which form the Tory heartland, and MPs from Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Staffordshire have been among those complaining most loudly of the blight and uncertainty caused to residents.

Some said today that they would vote against the government in any future House of Commons motions about the controversial rail scheme.