No final HS2 decision until revised costs known, say Labour

Labour's campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden has declined to commit to building the HS2 rail line in full, due to uncertainty over the costs.

Speaking to the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, he said he wanted to see the high speed line built.

However, he said he needed to see the project's revised costs and a final decision would be in the manifesto.

It comes after No 10 refused to guarantee the future of the HS2 line between Birmingham and Manchester.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is said to have concerns about the project's spiralling costs.

The massive scheme was set up to create fast rail links between London, the West Midlands and the North of England.

However, it has been beset by delays and concerns over the final bill have already led to the government scrapping the section between the East Midlands and Leeds.

A blueprint for Labour's potential policies at the next general election - seen by the BBC - says the party would "deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail and High Speed 2 in full, unlocking billions in economic growth, creating decent jobs, slashing journey times and increasing capacity".

This National Policy Forum document has been put together following discussions between shadow ministers, union leaders and party members.

However, it is not the same as a manifesto. That will be agreed at a further meeting, where some proposals mentioned in the National Policy Forum document may be ditched.

Asked if Labour would keep the pledge to deliver HS2 in full, Mr McFadden said: "We want to see the railway being built, it looks as though the government is now putting a question mark over this, there may be revised costs to that.

"When this started a price tag of about £30bn was put on it - those prices haven't been raised since 2019 - we've had quite a lot of inflation since then.

"So, I want to see what happens in the coming months, we want to see the railway being built but we've also - like everything else - got to look at the cost of everything we do."

"I want to see what this costs and we'll make those decisions when it comes to the manifesto."

Earlier this week, the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, expressed concern about the government potentially scrapping parts of HS2 asking: "Why should it be the North of England that pays the price?

"What we are going to end up with here is in the southern half of the country, a modern, high-speed rail network, and the northern half of the country left with crumbling Victorian infrastructure.

A spokesperson for the High Speed Rail Group said scrapping phase two would be a "disaster" for the North of England and the Midlands adding: "The government needs to kill the speculation and make its intentions clear, and it ought to commit clearly and unambiguously to delivering the project as planned.

Mr McFadden was also asked by Laura Kuenssberg about Labour's plans to stop small boats carrying migrants from crossing the Channel.

Earlier in the week, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he would reach an agreement with the European Union to speed up data and intelligence sharing and strengthen powers to tackle the gangs who arrange the crossings.

Asked if Labour would put a cap on the number of migrants it might be willing to accept under any new deal with the EU, Mr McFadden said: "I don't think it's going to be an allocation of numbers.

"We're talking about individual cases where a child may have strong family links here. It's not, we'll take this many, you take that many - that's not the kind of negotiation we will have."