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HS2: EU to pay just £30m to £55bn project

The EU will pay just £30 million towards controversial HS2 – a fraction of its £55 billion price tag, it has emerged.

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The figure has been labelled an 'insult' by anti-HS2 campaigner and UKIP MEP Jill Seymour.

Transport minister Robert Goodwill revealed the amount – €39.2 million – in a written parliamentary answer.

It amounts to a contribution of 0.05 per cent of the overall cost.

The Government has already spent more than £1 billion without a single inch of track being laid.

Mrs Seymour from Cosford is UKIP's transport spokesman.

She said: "This funding – which isn't even being paid up front in one lump sum – is insulting.

"HS2 is a vanity project which does not have a valid business case, and pressure from the EU is one of the main reasons it is being built.

"For the EU to now offer such a paltry sum towards the £55 billion-plus construction costs of HS2 is just another slap in the face for the British taxpayer.

"If the Brussels bureaucrats want HS2 in Britain to fit into their grand plan for a Europe-wide rail network, the least they could do is put their money where their mouths are.

"But as usual, we just get interference that we don't want in our affairs – instead of a fair financial investment recognising the amount of money we hand over to the EU every single day."

Mrs Seymour added: "UKIP would scrap the HS2 scheme immediately.

"It has no business case, as it will leave our country riddled with escalating debt. Never mind how many communities it will destroy, ripping up graveyards and ancient woodlands."

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