West Midlands MPs urging Cameron to drop HS2 rail plan
David Cameron should ditch high speed rail and not be “side-tracked” by issues such as gay marriage if he wants a majority in 2015, West Midland Tories said today.
As Tories reeled from finishing behind UKIP in the Eastleigh by-election and took flak for the controversial bedroom tax, MPs and council leaders urged the Prime Minister to drop the £32bn HS2 rail scheme that will cut through Staffordshire.
Michael Fabricant, Lichfield MP and vice-chairman of the Tory party, said: “I supported gay marriage but with hindsight there was no great demand for it.
“It would have been better had we done this in our first year of office.
“As far as the next election is concerned, I know that locally the cancellation of HS2 would be a big plus.”
He said Mr Cameron needs to emphasise work Tories have done to stop immigrants claiming benefits and to tackle the deficit.
Legacy
Councillor Philip Atkins, Tory leader of Staffordshire County Council, faces May polls. Tories ended 28 years of Labour control in 2009 as they won most seats and cut Labour to three councillors.
Councillor Atkins said: “There’s still a lot to be said about the legacy of the last government. It’s not about how much we spend, it’s about how we spend..”
Dudley South MP Chris Kelly said they needed distance between them and Liberal Democrats. He said: “I want to see our manifesto published early so that people can see what the Conservatives would do if we were not in a coalition.”
Wolverhampton South West MP Paul Uppal, has urged the party to broaden its appeal to minority ethnic communities and “represent the face of modern Britain”.
South Staffordshire Tory MP Gavin Williamson backs HS2 but said many people felt the gay marriage vote was a “distraction” from “bigger issues” of the economy.
He said: “We have to hammer home what we’re doing on immigration.”
Comments for: "West Midlands MPs urging Cameron to drop HS2 rail plan"
sm
A country ruined by tory goverments past and present, immagration, scrounger's
and foreign aid,
Neil
I wonder if immigrants can spell immigration? Stop reading the Daily Mail and do some research numb nuts.
sports giant
and I suppose you don't believe Blair and the liar party had no hand in the 13 years they were in power
mr smug
no, sm... a country recused by the stupidity of labour
Mills
The proposed HS2 route runs behind Stafford hospital over fields, which has no A and E overnight and is at serious risk of losing more essential services. HS2 'profit', as claimed by HS2 Ltd, is based on extremely flawed assumptions. HS2 needs to be scraped now so vital resources are used on saving hospitals and other resources. HS2 is an insult to the health of Staffordians and the intelligence of the UK. So many people oppose HS2 but not enough information is given in papers and online to how to be heard by the government so they have to listen rather than claiming HS2 has little opposition. Local papers should be doing more to give advice about how to oppose HS2. Writing to the local MP, signing petitions and supporting local campaign groups will help. One petition will stop government creating laws to help give their vanity project the go ahead: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/46498
Go-HS2
it is true that there is a need for more information. But this is the case for both sides of the argument. How many people in Stafford, for example, realise that the town will have high speed services calling at the existing station? These are services capable of running on existing and high speed lines.
Also, how many understand we are running out of capacity on our crowded railways? Network Rail concluded in its January 2012 report that local services would be lost at Stone and Rugeley even if the alternative 51M scheme was adopted instead of HS2 because of capacity constraints.
DSE
And this mess has nothing to do with Tony Blair's/Gordon Brown's perfect Labour Government does it ?
immagration indeed.
SL
The HS2 project is a vanity project that is not needed. What IS needed is reopening of closed lines, that should never have been closed. The current projected cost of 32 billion is money that could be more usefully used on them. That cost will spiral once they start to build it. It is not a sustainable project, as current rail ticket fares are stupidly high already, This line will carry a premium ticket rate over and above that of first class on the other North-South lines. Only rich business people & MP's will be able to afford to use it.
andy wolves
there only one party to vote for now and it ukip all the other main partys can not be trusted any more they dragging our country into the gutter
Patricia
The majority of BRitish people want a referendum to get out of the EU now Mr Cameron!.
HE
The HS2 project is an expensive countryside destroying project.The government have shown that you cannot believe anything they say.They have ignored the fact that they are causing the people who pay their wages, to see their taxes pay for a scheme that is a huge white elephant, at a time when so many good things are being cut back, and families are struggling to make ends meet.
It has not been looked into properly,the consultation was a joke.They are cutting back on the Euston rebuild because they
underestimated the cost.So how will it cope with this supposed 1000 passengers that will arrive every 4 minutes? They need that many to make it pay (or break even).They made an expensive hash of the west coast franchise that we all have to pay for.Save our countryside ,our ancient woods,our communities and Drop HS2.
Peter Davidson
Here we go again; presumably readers are aware of the consensus supporting of HS2 that exists across the political spectrum. All mainstream political parties are fully behind HS2 so this cry smacks of short term electoral desperation. Even UKIP, who are allegedly opposed to HS2, carried a commitment to High Speed Rail in their General Election manifesto, which exposes how fickle they are in their attempts to woo voters.
HS2 is not about NOW anyway - it's a long term plan for the future, to provide a world class inter city, long distance rail network fit for the 21st Century. The WCML is nearly 175 years old and it shows, with recurrent breakdowns and almost constant maintenance to keep it in working order.
How much compensation are you expecting
Peter Davidson
None
But since you ask; are you expecting some?
Go-HS2
The article is headlined - 'West Midlands MPs urging Cameron to drop HS2 rail plan'
However, having read the article Michael Fabricant - who incidentally supports high speed rail, but not HS2 - is the only MP referring to the project and his wish for it to be dropped. The other MPs mentioned do not refer to HS2, except Gavin Williamson who 'backs HS2.'