Transport minister refuses to say government still committed to extending HS2 to Manchester, and to Euston Graham Stringer (Lab) asks Holden if he could confirm that the government remains committed to taking HS2 to Manchester, and building the line all the way to Euston, and not just stopping at Old Oak Common. Holden refuses to answer. He just says ministers will keep the Commons updated. In a story in the Times on Saturday Oliver Wright said Rishi Sunak has decided to give up the phase two line to Manchester and the Euston link. Wright said: A senior government source claimed Rishi Sunak had “made up his mind” to scrap both the Manchester HS2 link and the line running into Euston. Instead, the prime minister would pledge to prioritise so-called Northern Powerhouse Rail with the potential to use savings to upgrade the project so that a new high-speed rail link would run from Liverpool to Leeds. “Unless he can be persuaded to change course it is a done deal,” the source said, although they added that the rump of HS2 would mean the government had spent most of the money but with almost none of the benefit. “Ending the line at Old Oak Common is pretty much the definition of a railway to nowhere.” UPDATE: Stringer asked: Will the minister give an unambiguous answer to the question: is this Government still committed to building HS2 to Manchester from Euston? Because people in the north need to know whether or not they are being abandoned because it looks like that to me from the press reports. And Holden replied: There’s no question of this government abandoning the north … This government is hugely investing in the north of England, whether it’s on rail or road or indeed on our important bus network. Ministers will continue to update the House regularly on HS2 as we have done throughout. Afternoon summary Liz Truss has dismissed the argument that she crashed the UK’s economy while she was prime minister, and while conceding she made mistakes in No 10, sought to primarily blame “groupthink” from the Bank of England, the media and civil service. Richard Holden, a transport minister, has refused to say that the government remains committed to extending HS2 to Manchester, and to ensuring that the London link goes all the way to Euston. (See 3.48pm.) Senior government officials spoke to Buckingham Palace to express worries about Boris Johnson’s conduct in office, and discussed asking Queen Elizabeth to raise concerns with him during their private audiences, a BBC documentary has said. The Welsh government’s “historic” changes to the Senedd, including sharply increasing the number of members, have been criticised by the Conservatives who say the millions of pounds an expanded Welsh parliament would cost each year should be ploughed into improving public services. The levelling up minister Dehenna Davison has resigned from government as she revealed her ongoing struggle with chronic migraine. London faces the “incredibly worrying” prospect of enduring days that hit 45C (113F) due to the worsening climate crisis, its mayor, Sadiq Khan, told the Guardian at a climate summit in New York. The government has announced a new compensation scheme for Post Office workers wrongly convicted under the Horizon scandal. Experts says Starmer won"t be able to get "much better" Brexit deal with EU while UK remains outside single market EU policy experts are sceptical of the significance of Keir Starmer’s declaration that he wants to get a “much better” Brexit deal with the EU. Wolfgang Münchau, director of Eurointelligence, a news service providing news and analysis relating to the EU, has written a blog saying a better deal is not available. He says: Probably the biggest delusion yet to be unpicked is Sir Keir’s repeated assertion that there is a better deal with the EU out there. This is simply not true. There was a lot of vindictive commentary from the EU during the entire Brexit process, but the deal that was eventually agreed was a reasonable third-country trade deal. The two big remaining issues at the time have since been resolved: Northern Ireland and Britain’s associate membership of the EU Horizon’s science programme. If your bottom line is that you do not wish to rejoin the single market and the customs union, there really is not a lot more out there. On X/Twitter Münchau has called Starmer’s declaration “silly”. John Springford, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform thinktank, also thinks that Starmer would find it hard to negotiate changes that would make a big difference. He posted a message on X/Twitter saying: More cakism? Bolt-ons to the FTA with the EU isn’t going to make much difference to the economy. And Springford told the Evening Standard: Some bolt-ons to the EU-UK trade deal would help some sectors, like agriculture. But they wouldn’t change the problem: a free trade agreement is much less effective than a single market and customs union. Starmer says he wants a closer EU relationship to improve growth, but his red lines on the EU make it very hard to achieve that. Rem Korteweg, a fellow at the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch international relations thinktank, says a major rewrite of the deal is unlikely. “Major rewrite” doing a lot of work here A vet agreement & prof qualifications recognition won’t lead to fundamental changes in EU-UK trading But I guess Starmer could sell it as a “closer” relationship (I wonder what he will offer EU in return tho) John O’Brennan, professor of European integration at Maynooth University in Ireland, also think Starmer is being cakeist. The British elite delusions about the relationship with the EU go far beyond the Conservative Party. Keir Starmer is advocating another kind of cakeism while in fact he is locking the U.K. into a Swiss type relationship with the EU which is completely asymmetric. Baffling. Mujtaba Rahman, the Brexit expert at the Eurasia Group, says Starmer will have to renegotiate the deal. Of course @UKLabour @Keir_Starmer will have to fix the Brexit deal Frost was totally out of his depth, and negotiated a shite deal that has totally shafted large parts of the UK economy That was never going to be a sustainable equilibrium But Anand Menon, who runs UK in a Changing Europe, an academic thinktank, thinks that Britain will find it hard to secure big improvements while it remains outside the single market. A veterinary agreement is not going to ‘fix’ the economic impact of Johnson’s Brexit deal. The point about Starmer is that he has decided being outside the Single Market should be the new equilibrium. An annual national day of reflection should be held and schoolchildren must be taught about people’s experiences in the pandemic, the UK Commission on Covid Commemoration has proposed. These are among 10 recommendations it has made in a report to the government. Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, said the “valuable recommendations” would be considered by government. Police aren"t paid "to dance with drag queens", Braverman tells MPs During Home Office questions Suella Braverman also restated her opposition to the police being involved in what she sees as “political activism”. In response to a question from the Conservative MP, the home secretary said: We pay the police to fight crime, whether that’s a focus on antisocial behaviour, the nuisance bikers or burglaries. They are there to keep people safe. We do not pay them to wave flags at parades, to dance with drag queens or to campaign. That’s why I finally ended all association with Stonewall at the Home Office and why I expect all PCCs [police and crime commissioners] and chief constables to focus on cutting crime and rebuilding confidence, not playing politics. Lisa Nandy has been tweeting from New York, where she is representing Labour at the United Nations general assembly in her new job as shadow cabinet minister for international development. Suella Braverman, the home secretary, told MPs in the Commons earlier that there was a “strong case” to be made for China to be added to the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme when it gets introduced. The scheme is being set up under the National Security Act and it will ensure that people trying to exert political influence on behalf of a foreign power have to be registered. The enhanced tier will be for countries that pose a greater risk. Asked whether China would be in this tier, Braverman said: I will not shy away from calling out threats from China for what they are and make it clear that their agencies regularly engage in hostile activity towards the UK. We are currently reviewing the countries that should go on to the enhanced tier of Firs. I think there is a strong case to be made for China being put into that, but I won’t … I don’t want to prejudice the process by which those determinations will be made. This is almost exactly the same answer that Oliver Dowden, the deputy PM gave, when asked about this in the Commons last week. Liz Truss has posted the full text of her speech this morning on her website. Defra to limit scope for individual dogs to be exempt from Dangerous Dogs Act as American XL bully ban comes in Lord Benyon, a minister in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, says the government wants to limit the number of people able to keep dogs banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act subject to certain conditions. He made the comment in a written ministerial statement about the government plan, first announced on Friday, to make American XL bully dogs illegal under the legislation. He said: While the courts have the power to allow people to keep banned breeds with certain conditions, like being muzzled and neutered, the number of so-called exempted dogs is higher than a decade ago. That was not the intention of the legislation passed over 30 years ago. Therefore, we will also review our guidance to enforcers of the law. Benyon also said that, for XL bullies to be banned, they would have to be defined first. Explaining the process, he said: Under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, a definition of the ‘American XL Bully’ breed type needs to be specified in order to impose a ban. The environment secretary and the home secretary will convene experts to define the ‘American XL bully’ breed type. This group will include police, canine and veterinary experts, and animal welfare stakeholders. This is a vital first step towards adding it to the list of dogs banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act. We will engage with the relevant devolved administrations about adopting a UK-wide approach. The government will then legislate to add it to the list of dogs banned under the Act. I intend to have the legislation in place to deliver this ban by the end of the year. This will make it an offence to own an unregistered XL bully, or to breed, gift or sell one. We need to safely manage the existing population of these dogs, therefore there will be a transition period. Further details on how this period will work will be provided ahead of the tabling of the legislation later this year. Dog owners do not need to take any action at this stage. Transport minister refuses to say government still committed to extending HS2 to Manchester, and to Euston Graham Stringer (Lab) asks Holden if he could confirm that the government remains committed to taking HS2 to Manchester, and building the line all the way to Euston, and not just stopping at Old Oak Common. Holden refuses to answer. He just says ministers will keep the Commons updated. In a story in the Times on Saturday Oliver Wright said Rishi Sunak has decided to give up the phase two line to Manchester and the Euston link. Wright said: A senior government source claimed Rishi Sunak had “made up his mind” to scrap both the Manchester HS2 link and the line running into Euston. Instead, the prime minister would pledge to prioritise so-called Northern Powerhouse Rail with the potential to use savings to upgrade the project so that a new high-speed rail link would run from Liverpool to Leeds. “Unless he can be persuaded to change course it is a done deal,” the source said, although they added that the rump of HS2 would mean the government had spent most of the money but with almost none of the benefit. “Ending the line at Old Oak Common is pretty much the definition of a railway to nowhere.” UPDATE: Stringer asked: Will the minister give an unambiguous answer to the question: is this Government still committed to building HS2 to Manchester from Euston? Because people in the north need to know whether or not they are being abandoned because it looks like that to me from the press reports. And Holden replied: There’s no question of this government abandoning the north … This government is hugely investing in the north of England, whether it’s on rail or road or indeed on our important bus network. Ministers will continue to update the House regularly on HS2 as we have done throughout. Iain Stewart (Con), chair of the Commons transport committee, says that if it is true that the government is going to scrap phase two of HS2, that would be a false economy. He says Holden should pass this message on to the Treasury: “Either do it properly or don’t do it at all.” Holden says he will pass that on.