Labour mayors unite to fend off PM’s HS2 axe

England’s five Labour metro mayors have claimed the prime minister is “risking the cohesion” of the country with his plan to curtail the HS2 project. After a meeting in Leeds, Sadiq Khan, Andy Burnham, Tracy Brabin, Oliver Coppard and Steve Rotheram said scrapping the rail project’s northern leg would leave the north of England with “Victorian” transport infrastructure. Less than a third of Conservative supporters back Rishi Sunak’s plan to scrap HS2’s northern link between Birmingham and Manchester, despite believing that the railway does not represent good value for money. YouGov polling found that 52% of all Tory voters still support the project despite its spiralling costs, with 35% saying they oppose it. Only 29% of Conservative voters say the high-speed line should stop at Birmingham and not proceed to Manchester. But just 11% think the project represents good value for money. The Times (£)