10.05.13
Ex-cabinet minister slams HS2 as a ‘boy’s toy’
HS2 is a “boy’s toy” that will “saddle future governments with huge debt”, former Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan has said.
After she was sacked from the Cabinet in the September 2012 reshuffle, the Chesham & Amersham MP vowed “total opposition” to the high-speed rail line.
The Queen’s Speech this week set out legislation to allow the Government to go ahead with the £3bn project. Gillan said in Parliament following the speech: “For the last four years this Government has spent hundreds of millions of pounds on a project that's never been discussed or voted on in this house.
“Instead of relying on a real voting process or even the Hybrid Bill, that will take a great deal of time, the Government is going to rush through a quick little Paving Bill. Much of this has been conducted behind closed doors. The Government must be far more open before slipping through this.
“I have serious misgivings about HS2. This project was pulled like a rabbit from the hat by the last Labour government.
“It will cause irreparable damage to the Chilterns. The route doesn't even try to stick to existing transport corridors and it drives a steel arrow into the heart of the Chiltern hills, deemed so precious before now as to be designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.”
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(Image of Cheryl Gillan with David Cameron at Cardiff station in May 2010 courtesy The Prime Minister’s Office, Crown Copyright. Used here under a Creative Commons licence.)