HS2: Cameron builds £500m tunnel 'to keep minister in job'

TRANSPORT MINISTER Justine Greening (above) is expected to announce this week that in a concession to campaigners in the Tory heartlands, the mooted HS2 high-speed rail link will be tunneled under at least one part of the Chilterns.

The Mail on Sunday reports that the £500m tunnel is being built to keep one of David Cameron's ministers in the cabinet after the proposed London-Birmingham line caused deep controversy as it passes through some of the Home Counties' most picturesque countryside.

Wales secretary Cheryl Gillan – one of just five women in Cameron's cabinet – announced last year that she would quit her ministerial role in protest if construction went ahead as proposed. According to the Mail, a 1.5-mile tunnel in her Amersham and Chesham constituency could save her cabinet career.

Meanwhile, The Sunday Telegraph reports that Cameron could face a serious revolt from other Tory MPs over the HS2 plan. As many as 30 are said to have expressed concern about the project, which would reduce London to Birminghamtravel to just 49 minutes.

The paper says they are concerned about the "heavy cost to taxpayers, disruption to local communities and the damage to the countryside". Eighteen local authorities have expressed opposition to the plans, banding together to form a campaigning group against them.

The transport minister and the PM have been working on the latest version of the plans this weekend – and Greening could make an announcement on whether they will be put into action as early as Tuesday.

Cameron told the Telegraph: "They called the M40 the road to nowhere. [But] it's been fantastically successful as a driver of growth up theThamesValley, as is the M4... Would the Docklands have ever been the success it is now without the Jubilee Line extension?"

"If you really want this agenda, rebalancing the British economy, spreading growth out from the South East, linking up our biggest cities with high-speed rail, it’s an agenda you simply can’t ignore."

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