David Davis has shared his predictions for HS2, amid an ongoing battle between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Mayor for Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham.
The rail project, which seeks to connect London to northern cities such as Manchester and Birmingham, has continually been pushed back and ballooned in cost, from £32billion to £71billion.
Speaking to Andrew Pierce on GB News, the Conservative MP discussed how northern cities will 'lose out' to London, if the project were to be completed.
Andrew asked: "I want to talk about HS2. You're a Yorkshire MP. The Prime Minister is not going to tell us this week that the HS2 extension is not going to come to the City of Manchester. It would be a rather bad optic, David Davis.
David Davis says 'Manchester will lose' if HS2 goes ahead
GB News
“But we shouldn't be doing it in the first place. It's billions of pounds out of control. And who invented the idea in the first place?”
Davis replied: “Question – what have Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May, Johnson and Truss all got in common? None of them have ever run a big capital project.
“Now I have. All right, it wasn't as big as this, it was 50 million or whatever. But you know when it started, I said it's going to cost four times as much, and it's turning out that way.
“It was never justified. They said oh well, it'll save 20 minutes on the journey time. I don't know what you do when you're traveling on business, I work. Saving me 20 minutes of working time on the train is not a justification.
Davis continued: “And the other thing which is really worrying, and this is where the northern group who what the HS2 should think. When you build big connectors like HS2 between two big cities, the smaller one loses out, the bigger one grows, not the smaller one.
“So Birmingham would end up losing out, Manchester would end up losing out, London would grow. We don't want that.”
Mayor for Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has spoken out against Sunak's reported plans to scrap the northern part of the rail route.
Speaking exclusively to GB News, Burnham ruled that "all options are definitely on the table" when it comes to fighting to keep HS2 in Manchester and the northern region.
Andy Burnham previously told GB News he would take 'legal action' against Government over HS2
PA
When asked whether he would take legal action over HS2, Burnham said: "All options would definitely be on the table.
"We're we're getting stronger in terms of the voice of the northwest.
"We don't seek fights with Whitehall, but we know how to answer them back now and we're not just gonna just gonna lie down and accept the way Whitehall has always treated the north of England."
He added: "We are fighting back. We're getting organised. We're not going to take things lying down so they will be hearing from us."
