What’s left of HS2 will serve as a monument to the Conservatives’ time in power

Editorial: Taxpayers will be asking how a project that could have helped transform the prospects of the North and lifted the whole country’s economic growth rate has come to this. Only a full independent inquiry will answer such questions

The chancellor would be right to be angry about the timing and the manner in which the story broke (PA Wire)

At the dawn of the Conservative Party Conference, the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, solemnly told impatient reporters that it was not the “appropriate time” to announce whether the HS2 link to Manchester was to be cancelled. It turned out that the actual moment of the (unofficial) announcement was highly inappropriate, at least from Mr Hunt’s point of view, as it arrived minutes before his keynote speech.

The chancellor would be right to be angry about the timing and the manner in which the story broke – but it was only a matter of time before the original scoop in The Independent was followed through. It was, in other words, foolish to try to delay the announcement indefinitely.

The unfortunate (to say the least) coincidence of the conference being held in Manchester complicated matters, as did divisions within the cabinet. But Mr Hunt and his colleagues had a choice when The Independent first revealed, some weeks ago, that the project was in jeopardy.