HS2 does nothing for the new Tory heartlands in the North

If there is one thing that could yet save HS2 it is the ‘letting down the North’ argument. Didn’t Boris make a speech in the early hours of 13 December promising the party’s new-found voters in the north that he would never take their votes for granted and never forget them? How, then, would he escape the onslaught that would be launched against him if he decided to dump a high-speed rail line to the north?

We’ve had endless open letters from council leaders, business people and so on in recent months begging the government to go ahead with the scheme. Boris is likely to be especially receptive to the pleas of Andy Street, the Conservative mayor for the West Midlands, who asked each of the candidates in the Tory leadership election last year to make a pledge to support high-speed rail.