The past few days has seen even more confusion than usual about the future of the HS2 rail project. There’s the usual dither and delay as a dysfunctional Tory government can’t make its mind up what to do about anything with HS2 just being one item on a long list of issues and policies it’s incapable of tackling with any consistency or rationality.
In many ways, that doesn’t really matter. Most people, including many Tory MPs, can smell the stench of a dying government. What the smart money is on now is what Labour will do when they come back to power at the next election. Labour (who started the HS2 project) have always backed it in opposition, but over the past couple of days sections of the media have cast doubt on the idea and speculated that Labour are somehow backtracking. Today, a group of Labour Shadow Ministers took to the airwaves and Twitter (I refuse to call it ‘X’) to make it very clear that wasn’t the case. I’ve gathered those comments together here. First up is Lou Haigh, the Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, who reinforced the message put out by Shadow Paymaster General Jon Ashworth in an interview on Sky news.
The message was further rammed home by Shadow Rail Minister Stephen Morgan in this trio of tweets.
Mark Walker of PR agency Cogitamus tweeted the fact that Shadow Minister without Portfolio Nick Thomas-Symonds had also been making Labour’s position clear on the BBCs ‘PM’ radio programme in an interview with Evan Davies.
Meanwhile, the BBC put out this tweet of the interview.
That’s four Labour Shadow Ministers making the party’s position crystal clear in what’s obviously a concerted approach which will almost certainly have the blessing of the Labour Leader’s office. It’s easy to see why. HS2 has massive support up in the North and Midlands where the Tories vacillation on the project has gone down like a cup of cold sick. Labour are smelling blood and capitalising on this to highlight the Tories ‘selling out’ the North and abandoning all pretense of ‘levelling up’. Labour are being handed an ideal opportunity to lambast the Government and erode any support they may still have in the ‘red wall’ seats. After all, why wouldn’t they support building HS2? It was their brainchild after all. Will the Tories realise the trap they’ve set for themselves? Possibly not as they’re so dysfunctional right now. They’re too busy listening to the swivel-eyed loons who got Liz Truss into such policy debacle.
Of course, Labour coming out in force to stamp out any confusion over their HS2 stance will be ignored by some sections of the media and also by the tiny number of Nimbys, right-wingers and faux ‘greens’ who still think them muttering on Twitter can possibly change anything. Labour can safely ignore them as most of them would never vote Labour anyway and none of them have the clout to affect an election in any meaningful way and barring something like an asteroid hitting the Earth, it’s almost certain that Labour will form the next Government…
I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312
Paul Bigland 
Don’t assume Labour will win the next election. All the Tories need to do is promise 80mph on motorways, scrapping ULEZ and the 20mph speed limit, and they will be in with a landslide. Yes, it will cost lives, but those lives are less important to the blue party, than securing power.
Oh, you cynic! The polls are consistent, the only question now is how big Labour’s majority will be.
Polls always overestimate Labours vote. People like to say they care about the environment and health service and of course they are happy to pay for it. Then in the booth, all they care about is low taxes, and as, Uxbridge shows, being able to drive anywhere unencumbered by all that Green rubbish. It’s too early to take anything for granted.
Hello. Mr Cynical again. I see that nice Mr Sunak is starting the process of abandoning all the Net Zero goals. It’s not a big step to scrapping ULEZ, and the most important project for electric transport in the UK, to the cheers of the Green Party, XR and their big oil paymasters.
Those of us who want to see things improve will just have to go and cry in a corner, and look at dumping the UK for somewhere better…
‘HS2 has massive support up in the North and Midlands’, Mmmm, course it does…..
It certainly does. That’s why the likes of Stop HS2 never had more than a handful of (in)action groups in the Midlands and the North – and not a single one in any of the urban areas HS2 will serve. It was just shire Nimbys and few of them. It’s also why the majority of MPs and all the urban Mayors backed HS2 (and still do) as do all the business organisations. What do the few remaining opponents of HS2 have? Nothing. No organisation, no money and no political clout. The anti HS2 ‘campaign’ – such as it was – has collapsed.
Did you see the Independent article on Whitmore Heath? An absolute howler of an own goal that proves beyond doubt that Nimby’ism is at the heart of the remaining few Anti’s agenda, the facade of faux environmental concern stripped clean away. You could almost suspect the Independent stitched them up deliberately.