Jeremy Hunt admits he took flight from London to Manchester for …

Jeremy Hunt has admitted he flew to Conservative conference in Manchester - as ministers prepare to ditch the planned high-speed rail^[1] link to the city.

The Chancellor hopped on a BA flight from London to Manchester, which usually takes around an hour, rather than a two-hour, 15-minute rail journey. He blamed a train cancellation due to industrial action for his decision to ditch taking public transport.

Asked whether he flew, as first reported in the Guardian, Mr Hunt told BBC^[2] Breakfast: "I took a BA flight because I was told that my train had been cancelled." On his return, Mr Hunt said: "I'll probably be driving home because I think there's another train strike on Wednesday."

Challenged over what his transport choices said about the state of the railways, Mr Hunt said they "need improving". But he declined to comment on the fate of HS2 as Rishi Sunak^[3] prepares to use his first party conference as leader to scrap the northern leg of HS2, between Manchester and Birmingham.

The PM and other top Tories have refused to address the reports as Conservative conference kicked off in Manchester yesterday. Mr Hunt repeatedly said it was not the "appropriate time" to discuss the plans during a morning broadcast round.

He told Sky News: "In terms of things like the northern leg of HS2, whatever decision we make, we will take very careful note of the need to have proper economic infrastructure throughout the whole country. In terms of this specific decision I'm afraid you will have to wait. We will make the announcement at the appropriate time."

The Prime Minister has faced a major backlash for wavering over whether HS2 will ever reach Manchester. Theresa May^[4], Boris Johnson^[5] and David Cameron^[6] have all urged him not to ditch the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the high-speed rail project that was designed to link the North and London. A drastic cost-cutting exercise could also see it end at Old Oak Common in the capital's western suburbs rather than reach its centre.

The Government has stressed the need to assess the value for money, with Mr Hunt questioning why delivering HS2 is costing vastly more than similar projects in Europe. "I need to have an answer why it costs 10 times more to build high speed rail in this country than it does across the Channel in France," he told LBC radio.

After the Sun reported that the rail project has 167 members of staff working in its HR department at a cost of £8million a year, Mr Hunt said some of the spend on public relations costs is "totally unacceptable".

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References

1. ^{^} prepare to ditch the planned high-speed rail (www.mirror.co.uk)
2. ^{^} BBC (www.mirror.co.uk)
3. ^{^} Rishi Sunak (www.mirror.co.uk)
4. ^{^} Theresa May (www.mirror.co.uk)
5. ^{^} Boris Johnson (www.mirror.co.uk)
6. ^{^} David Cameron (www.mirror.co.uk)
7. ^{^} Join our FREE Mirror politics WhatsApp community for all the latest from Westminster! (www.mirror.co.uk)
8. ^{^} Snapchat (story.snapchat.com)
9. ^{^} Tiktok (www.tiktok.com)
10. ^{^} Twitter (twitter.com)
11. ^{^} Facebook (www.facebook.com)