The chronic confusion over HS2 threatens to derail the Conservatives’ party conference

Editorial: A dismembered high-speed train line will rightly be remembered as a monument to national failure – one that deserves the disdain of the British electorate

(Dave Brown)

In the not-so-distant past, the annual pre-party conference interviews with regional radio stations were fairly routine, uneventful affairs.

They gave journalists from across the country a rare opportunity to ask a party leader, and especially the prime minister of the day, about issues that particularly affected their patch. The leaders, in turn, were able to increase their “reach” and maximise publicity. Win-win.

But then the Conservative Party seemed to forget how to do politics, and a session with a presenter from, say, a breakfast show in the South West took on the quality of an inquisition in a medieval star chamber equipped with a Judas Cradle.

One year ago, Liz Truss’s only conference season as prime minister got off to a surprisingly bad start, even by her standards, and her dismal performances on BBC local radio breakfast shows, replete with excruciating pauses and almost audible gulps, helped seal her demise.

Rishi Sunak is nowhere near as clueless as Ms Truss when confronted with a microphone, but his answers to crucial questions on the imminent mutilation of the HS2 scheme were risible. They could be summed up as “buses and potholes”.

Asked by BBC Radio Manchester’s Anna Jameson, for example, if the northern leg of HS2 might be axed, Mr Sunak said “I’m not speculating on future things”, as if she had just asked about whether it would snow in Salford on Christmas Day. Presumably, Mr Sunak would have been up for “speculating on past things”, but that’s not how news works.

Were the prime minister not such a polite fellow, his clumsily evasive answers would constitute insults to the intelligence of the people of the North.

In any case, after years of promises, Johnsonian boosterism and hifalutin talk about the Northern Powerhouse and “levelling up”, folk have been badly let down. So far as their new rail lines are concerned, they have been literally “left behind” at the station.

There will be a heavy political price to be paid for this at the next general election: Lancashire and Yorkshire have always had more than their share of marginal constituencies, and now boast even more in the former red wall seats.

But the uncertainties provoked time and again by this administration are also damaging business confidence. Ford and Nissan, both major players in the electrification of the UK’s automotive sector, have made no secret of their annoyance at the government’s abrupt postponement of the electric car mandate.

The renewable energy industry has similarly suffered from twists and U-turns in policy, particularly on onshore wind farms. The recent botched auction for offshore wind farms, which produced no bids, was another example of this ineptitude. The same may be said for the housebuilders, who are faced with ideas for different planning regimes with every change of prime minister – a depressing, frequent occurrence.

The chronic confusion about the fate of HS2 – ever since The Independent broke the story of its latest unscheduled stop at the station marked “Jeopardy Central” last week – is especially regrettable. It is, or was, the largest civil construction project since the war, and only the third major new national rail line to be built in a century.

The project itself is a major investment – about £100bn-plus, depending on its fate – and would trigger further investment and growth across the Midlands and the North for decades, perhaps even centuries, to come.

As matters stand, however, the companies concerned in its construction, let alone those considering future spin-off investments, do not know if it will go from Manchester or not, nor if it will even reach Euston but come to a premature halt at Old Oak Common, an as-yet unbuilt station in northwest London.

Even if there was an announcement that the North West extension and the Euston expansion were to go ahead after all, and the companies were to start drawing up plans for, say, new industrial depots or luxury hotels at the respective termini, how could they actually be sure that the government wouldn’t change its mind again in another few months? And Labour now refuses to commit to completing the extensions from Birmingham – hardly helpful.

One unnamed Conservative donor has threatened to withdraw their financial support for the party if the dithering continues, a sign of how frustrations are mounting. But the indecision will continue for three reasons.

First, that even the current generation of Tories can see that holding their party conference in Manchester and then cancelling the best thing to happen to the city since the Hacienda opened would be a PR disaster and wreck their proceedings.

Second, we know that the cabinet is divided on the issue. And, third, they simply don’t know what to do.

Financially, the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, says costs are out of control and hints that the returns are so poor, it makes no sense to proceed. Politically, the party leadership is faced with leaving office with its most obvious “achievement” a colossally expensive fast link that took a decade to build and which will connect Acton to Aston.

Already dismembered with the loss of links to York and Newcastle, HS2 is destined to become a monument to national failure that deserves the ridicule of the electorate and the world. No wonder Mr Sunak doesn’t like talking about it.