Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with local leaders in (a) Manchester, (b) Birmingham and (c) Crewe on the recently announced delays to HS2.

Following last week’s announcement the Secretary of State and I held a number of meetings with key stakeholders engaged in the project. The Mayors of the West Midlands and Greater Manchester and council leaders from Birmingham, Manchester and Cheshire East were invited to engage in these discussions.