Rishi Sunak drops biggest hint yet that HS2 will be next on his chopping board

PM Rishi Sunak last night dropped his biggest hint yet that HS2 will be next on his tough-choices chopping board.

He refused to guarantee the flagship high-speed line would ever reach Manchester, when grilled by The Sun.

He said: “I’m not going to speculate on lots of the other things people will be talking about.”

At a Downing Street press conference, Mr Sunak warned he would be announcing a “series of long-term decisions” in the coming months.

Fears have been mounting that HS2 will be massively scaled back to save tens of billions from its eye-watering budget.

Ministers have already ditched the North Eastern leg of the line to Leeds, and the central London terminal at Euston.

Labour has accused the Tories of mounting a “great rail betrayal” and has committed to building HS2 in full.

Several Conservative MPs are urging Mr Sunak to abandon the expensive project once the line to Birmingham is complete.

But last night the PM did commit to shoring up Britain’s energy infrastructure, to reduce reliance on foreign powers.

He announced the “first ever special plan” to give industry bosses certainty over new projects and hand communities a say.

And Mr Sunak called time on the “first-come-first-served” queue approach to grid connections so those who are ready will be connected first.

Meanwhile a £150million green research pot will fund groundbreaking research into eco technologies.