Ministers may quit over high speed rail route

David Cameron is braced for ministerial resignations over the new London to Birmingham high speed rail line, which will cut a swathe through the Conservative heartlands.

Channel 4 News has learnt that at least two ministers have suggested they may resign if they fail in their attempts to get the route changed.

Jeremy Wright, a government whip whose job is to keep MPs in order, told me he had put his constituents’ concerns before loyalty to the government.

Mr Wright said: “My constituency has always been most important to me. I’ve made it quite clear to my constituents that if I didn’t believe that I could do my job effectively as their advocate and their representative and simultaneously be a minister, then I would not be a minister.

“So far I’ve been able to do both things. I hope to their satisfaction, but their judgement about that will come at the next election.”

‘Aware of the concerns’
I accompanied the Transport Secretary Philip Hammond on a tour of the high speed route, which will cut journey times between London and Birmingham to just over 40 minutes – around half an hour less than now.

He said he understood ministers’ concerns about the damage caused by the line. “I’m very well aware of the concerns of the constituents indeed themselves have. I hope we’re having a constructive dialogue.

I’ve made it quite clear to my constituents that if I didn’t believe that I could do my job effectively as their advocate and their representative and simultaneously be a minister, then I would not be a minister. Jeremy Wright MP

“Clearly we will disagree on certain issues, but I want to get all the information I can, I want to see as much of the route as I can, I want to hear all the arguments, I want to understand the specific issues that are facing different sections of the community along the route and see how best we can try to address that”, Mr Hammond said.

But he insisted the plans were going ahead, and the route planned by Labour and inherited by the Coalition government was the “only practical” one.

It slices through sixteen Conservative constituencies – four of which are cabinet ministers’ seats, and six more junior ministers.

Foreign Office minister David Lidington, whose Aylesbury constituency is one of those affected, says he will vote against the new railway even if that costs him his ministerial job.

Some 440 homes will have to be demolished to make way for the line, which will allow trains to run at 250mph.

It will run just a few hundred yards from the house where Jan Kenyon has lived for 70 years.

She told Channel 4 News: How would you feel if your nest egg is taken away, your pension has been taken away?

“We have lived here since 1940. How would you feel if the whole of your house is taken away and we have no value in it. What’s our future?”

Route benefits
But the government insists that although the new route will cost £17bn, by bringing Birmingham and eventually cities such as Leeds nearer to London, the economic benefits will be double that.

Protesters who met the transport secretary today insisted the government’s estimates of demand for the line had been seriously overstated, and that high speed trains would increase carbon emissions.

They demanded more generous compensation payments for those whose homes will be blighted.

MPs will vote on the route after it has been finalised by the government next year. Construction will start in the next parliament.