UK Prime Minister Faces Backlash Over Rail Plan

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing a backlash after reports that his government will on Thursday scale back a new high-speed railway line in northern England

London, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Nov, 2021 ) :British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing a backlash after reports that his government will on Thursday scale back a new high-speed railway line in northern England.

Voters in the traditionally Labour-supporting region switched in their droves to Johnson's Conservatives at the last general election in 2019, giving him a landslide win.

As well as Johnson's promises on delivering Brexit, they were also swayed by promises of new infrastructure, including better east-west transport links.

But British media on Tuesday said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps will announce that a planned section of the HS2 line between central England and Leeds will no longer go ahead.

Ballooning costs have been blamed as the Treasury looks to tighten its belt after having to shelve out billions in public money for support during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a warning from the former so-called "Red Wall" seats in the north, several regional dailies carried the same front page, parodying the film "Trainspotting".

"Deliver what you promised," titles from The Chronicle in Newcastle, northeast England, to the Manchester Evening news, in the northwest, said.

"Choose the North. Choose jobs. Choose to finally keep your rail promises." Johnson's spokesman told reporters the government remained "fully committed to strengthening the rail links in our cities, across the Midlands and the North." Improving transport links was "an absolute priority" and a way to deliver Johnson's pledge to "level up" economic disparities between the north and London and the southeast.

- 'Serious betrayal' - But MPs and senior public figures from northern Constituencies warned that anything less than a full implementation of the government's pledge would be badly received, risking Johnson a loss in crucial support.

"If levelling up is a serious policy, the government has to deliver NPR (Northern Powerhouse Rail)," said the Labour mayor of the Liverpool city region, Steve Rotheram.

Not to do so would be a "serious betrayal", he added.

Johnson was still committed to the project last month, promising at his Conservative party annual conference: "We will do Northern Powerhouse Rail, we will link up the cities of the Midlands and the North." The Department for Transport refused to comment on speculation about the contents of Thursday's Integrated Rail Plan.

Even without the Midlands to Leeds section of the upgrade, HS2 is controversial, not least because of its spiralling cost, currently estimated at more than �100 billion ($134 billion, 118 billion Euros).

Environmental campaigners have mounted regular protests at construction sites, arguing it will have little impact on government emissions targets, and destroy swathes of countryside.

Other critics maintain the money would be better spent improving connectivity between densely populated northern cities, rather than a modest cut in journey times to London.

HS1 links London with the Channel Tunnel that connects the UK to France.