Former Countdown star Carol Vorderman has been mocked after wrongly claiming Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would “refuse to comment on HS2 speculation” during this week’s Conservative Party conference.
Ms Vorderman wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Rishi Sunak refuses ‘to comment on HS2 speculation’. He won’t say if the Manchester leg of HS2 will go ahead. Tories can’t fill seats in their conference in Manchester.”
The TV star also speculated that any announcement around Britain’s high-speed railway, would be made once Rishi Sunak had “escaped” his own conference in Manchester on Wednesday.
In his closing speech to the Conservative Party Conference on October 4, Rishi Sunak confirmed the long-rumoured decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2.
READ MORE: Full list of Rishi Sunak’s promises for north of England as HS2 leg scrapped
Reports the planned high-speed rail line would end in Birmingham rather than continuing up to Manchester had been swirling for weeks.
Mr Sunak spent days not answering the question, only making the announcement during his closing speech to this year’s conference.
The Prime Minister said he would spend “every single penny” of the £36 billion saved from scrapping the northern leg of HS2 on new transport projects in the North and Midlands.
But the government’s new “focus” would be on a project called Network North, which would “join up our great towns and cities in the North and the Midlands”.
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Responding to Ms Vorderman’s tweet, X user, @thesmartshadow wrote: “Why are you moaning about it, everyone was against it and said they should improve the existing rail infrastructure.”
Another suggested the TV star should have patience. Social media user, @Aggieandyandju1 wrote: “Perhaps people should wait for the announcement.”
User Matt James said: “He’ll [Rishi Sunak] turn up, waffle, waffle, waffle to say precisely nothing. An announcement about its cancellation will then be released on a Friday night.”
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