Yesterday marked the first reasonably good day that agitators for HS2 have had in a while. Northern business leaders started the day with a call to David Cameron to hold firm on the project, followed by Labour leader of Birmingham City Council Sir Albert Bore warning Labour of ‘protracted public conflict’ in the run-up to the general election if it continued to ‘put out such a negative message on HS2’. This morning’s Guardian story that Labour will support HS2 provided the project’s chairman Sir David Higgins is given the power to bring down its costs appears to be damage limitation. But party sources are today rowing back from that line, which means Labour’s support or otherwise is no clearer than it was yesterday. I have been told this morning that there is ‘no change to the position’, which remains ‘best spelled out in Mary Creagh’s blog’.
The danger for Miliband is that the heavy hints and confusing briefings not only frustrate those city council leaders who are already making serious plans based on the construction of the line going ahead, but that they also appear to be political game-playing, rather than the serious impression of fiscal responsibility that the party is trying to create by pulling back from its previous unconditional support.
Nigel Farage, Matthew Parris, Rory Sutherland and Cheryl Gillan will debate whether the government should ‘Stop HS2!‘ on 31 October 2013 in Westminster. Click here to book tickets.
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