Listen: Sunak dodges HS2 questions and blames Covid for failing railways

Rishi Sunak blamed the Covid pandemic for Britain’s failing railways as he refused multiple times to rule out scrapping HS2’s northern leg in a series of excruciating interviews.

During a round of interviews with local BBC radio hosts, the prime minister said running train services has been “very difficult” because the pandemic made people “stop travelling on the rail network”.

“There have obviously been challenges on the rail network more generally, and it’s across the country because of the pandemic,” Mr Sunak said when grilled by BBC York’s Joanita Musisi over why he has “failed the North’s rail passengers so badly”.

“It was bad before the pandemic, prime minister,” the presenter replied.