Boris Johnson has launched his second attack on Rishi Sunak in just days, accusing the Prime Minister of implementing "Treasury-driven nonsense".
The former Conservative leader intervened as he urged the incumbent of No10 against ditching the second leg of HS2.
It is thought that the Government is getting ready to announce it is axing the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the rail line in a bid to curb the spiralling cost of the project.
Sunak is looking to reset his premiership to close in on Labour in the polls after trailing for 12 months now.
WATCH: Sunak's policy fight back
Earlier this week he announced his intention to curb a number of net zero policiesin a bid to help provide clearer policy differences between him and Sir Keir Starmer.
Now, Sunak has refused to guarantee HS2 will reach Manchester despite £2.3billion having already been ploughed into stage two of the national line.
Attacking the plans, Johnson said: "This is total Treasury driven nonsense. It makes no sense at all to deliver a mutilated HS2."
A budget of £55.7billion for the whole of HS2 was set in 2015 but some reports suggest the bill has surpassed £100 billion, having been driven up by recent inflation.
“We need to connect the Midlands with the North with HS2 because that is the way to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail," Johnson added, speaking to The Times.
“It is the height of insanity to announce all this just before a party conference in Manchester.
Rishi Sunak frustrated Boris Johnson when he altered a number of climate change policies earlier in the week
PA“It is no wonder that Chinese universities teach the constant cancellation of UK infrastructure as an example of what is wrong with democracy.
“We need to get back to the 2019 agenda of uniting and levelling up our country.
“These desperate truncations won’t even yield any short term savings and make no difference to the case for tax cuts.”
It is the second time in just days that Johnson has publicly criticised the policies of Sunak.
Earlier this week he warned against ditching the climate change policies that he himself had introduced while in office in order to fulfil the UK's 2050 net zero commitments.
A Government spokeswoman said: “The HS2 project is already well underway with spades in the ground, and our focus remains on delivering it.”
