Downing Street is accused of LEAKING parts of HS2 rail report to ‘condition’ the public before parts of it are axed as costs spiral to £106 billion

• Andrew Sentance blasted HS2 critics Dominic Cummings and Andrew Gilligan
• He said review ‘more positive’ about building whole project that leak suggested
• Claimed ‘suspicious’ leak was ‘No 10 trying to put their spin on it’ before axe fell

Downing Street has been accused of deliberately leaking negative parts of a review into the multi-billion pound HS2 rail project to ‘condition’ the public for parts of it to be axed.

Senior Boris Johnson aides Dominic Cummings and Andrew Gilligan – who have criticised the scheme – should not be allowed to ‘determine what the outcome is’, according to Andrew Sentance, who worked on the Oakervee review.

Reports on Monday suggested that the review into the viability of the project, led by former HS2 chairman Doug Oakervee, said it could end up costing as much as £106 billion but should go ahead subject to ‘a number of qualifications’.

Economist Mr Sentance, a former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, told the Times: ‘The report was more positive about building the whole project but with provisos. 

‘This should be published. I’m quite annoyed about the way in which it has come out.

‘The way it came across in the Financial Times was this was No 10 trying to put their spin on it. It’s all very suspicious.

Senior Boris Johnson aides Dominic Cummings and Andrew Gilligan – who have criticised the scheme – should not be allowed to ‘determine what the outcome is’, according to Andrew Sentance, who worked on the Oakervee review.

Reports on Monday suggested that the review into the viability of the project said it could end up costing as much as £106 billion but should go ahead subject to ‘a number of qualifications’

Economist Mr Sentance told the Times: ‘The report was more positive about building the whole project but with provisos’

‘If you have a government review you should trust people who have been involved in the review. 

What is HS2 and how much will it cost? 

HS2 (High Speed 2) is a plan to construct a new high-speed railway line linking London, West Midlands, Leeds and Manchester.

The line is to be built in a ‘Y’ configuration.  London will be on the bottom of the ‘Y’, Birmingham at the centre, Leeds at the top right and Manchester at the top left. 

Work on phase one began in 2017 and the government’s original plans envisaged the line being operational by 2026. 

The HS2 project is being developed by High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd. 

The project was originally estimated at costing approximately £34 billion. 

But the final bill for the project has been repeatedly revised upwards. 

It jumped to £42 billion in 2012 and then to £56 billion in 2015. 

An official estimate published last year put the cost at £88 billion. 

But the Oakervee report suggests it could end up costing as much as £106 billion. 

HS2 has already spent billions of pounds despite not yet actually laying any track.  

‘Advisers like Andrew Gilligan and Dominic Cummings shouldn’t determine what the outcome is. If that’s the way we’re going in this country I’m very disappointed.

‘The majority view of the committee was that the benefits of this would be realised in an integrated project, not where we started chopping off great legs of the network.’

Mr Sentance’s intervention came after Grant Shapps yesterday appeared to cast doubt on the future of the mammoth scheme to link London and Northern cities. 

The Transport Secretary said ministers faced a ‘massive decision’ on whether the high speed rail initiative should go ahead as he insisted the way forward must be ‘fact-based’ and driven by data. 

He also said that decision will be made ‘quite shortly’ and in ‘weeks rather than months’.  

Ultimately the decision on whether the project can proceed will be made by Boris Johnson who is being fiercely lobbied by both pro and anti-HS2 voices.

There are mounting concerns about whether the project represents value for money with costs ballooning from an original estimate of £34 billion to £56 billion and then to approximately £88 billion last year.  

Construction chiefs have said scrapping the project would cause ‘irreparable damage’ to the industry but sceptical Tory MPs believe HS2 will end up being a ‘white elephant’.  

The review’s seemingly reluctant backing of the infrastructure project presents Mr Johnson with a potential headache. 

He is believed to be reluctant to cancel HS2 without there being a ready-made replacement on the table because of the message it could send to northern voters. 

The review’s findings mean Mr Johnson will have to shoulder much of the responsibility for the project should he agree to allow it to proceed. 

The high speed railway line is designed to better connect London with Birmingham with a second stage of the network then pushing north to Manchester and Leeds. 

However, the Oakervee report – seen by the Financial Times – apparently suggests that phase 2b should be paused for half a year. 

This would allow further work to be done to figure out whether the proposed improvements could be delivered via more conventional rail. 

This would likely save a lot of money but could risk undermining the purpose of the project. 

Mr Johnson will face a fierce backlash regardless of whether he decides to proceed with HS2 or scrap it. 

Many Tory MPs are opposed to the project either on cost grounds or over concerns about the route and what it could mean for parts of the English countryside.  

A group of Conservative MPs who are opposed to the project are expected to meet with Mr Johnson this week to urge him to cancel it.

However, pro-HS2 Tories are believed to be signing a letter to Mr Johnson urging him to press ahead with the scheme.  

There is also resistance to HS2 within some parts of the civil service. 

But construction bosses are adamant it must go ahead amid concerns cancelling it would strike a hammer blow to the industry. 

The chief executives of Balfour Beatty, Skanska and Morgan Sindall were among the signatories to a letter sent to Johnson, seen by The Times, which urged him to approve the scheme and noted that it would take ‘many years to get an equivalent pipeline of work in place’ if HS2 was cancelled. 

Boris Johnson, pictured with Angela Merkel in Berlin yesterday, is expected to make a decision within weeks on whether to go ahead with HS2

HS2 would allow trains to travel at speeds of up to 250mph. That would mean much faster journeys between key UK cities. The graphic shows times for HS2 passengers (in red) verses the current times (in blue)

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