Number 10 has been accused of leaking elements of the official HS2 report to “condition” the public against building the high-speed line.
One of the reports’ authors, Andrew Sentance, said that leaks revealing an estimated cost of £106bn and recommendations to pause the Manchester to Leeds leg were “spin”.
Sentance, a former member of the bank of England’s monetary policy committee and part of the Oakervee review team, said that Dominic Cummings and Andrew Gilligan, aides to prime minister who have long been hostile to HS2, should not be a allowed to misrepresent the review.
He added that the review was more positive about the project than had been portrayed, and that it did not recommend “chopping off great legs of the network”.
A Downing Street insider has called the claims “ludicrous”.
Critics have pointed out that the same money could build 200 flagship hospitals, 1.7m social homes or, if you are that way inclined, 30 aircraft carriers.
