Sunak sparks Tory civil war with scrapping of HS2 Manchester leg

Tory leader's attempt to portray himself as change candidate at party conference overshadowed by fierce criticism of U-turn

Rishi Sunak unleashed a Tory civil war on Wednesday by announcing the scrapping of the northern leg of HS2 as the former prime minister David Cameron said the decision showed the country was heading in the wrong direction.

After days of frenzied speculation over the future of the flagship levelling-up project, Sunak confirmed he was axing the Birmingham to Manchester line and would use the 36bn of savings to fund a number of other transport schemes, described as Network North".