MPs have voted in favour of further work on the Integrated Rail Plan, which involves cutting the eastern leg of HS2 back to East Midlands Parkway and shortening a new high speed line running west to east in the north. The Midland Main Line is to be electrified in full, the East Coast Main Line upgraded and the Transpennine Main Line will also provide an electrified through route from Liverpool to York and beyond. 

Even so, the Plan was bitterly criticised in the north of England, but transport secretary Grant Shapps has defended the £96 billion-worth of proposals by saying that they will ‘rebalance our economic geography’.

Last night, Labour used one of its 20 Opposition Day debates to call for the government to 'deliver, in full, the infrastructure that was promised to the North at the last election, including Northern Powerhouse Rail as well as the new high-speed line beyond Nottingham'.

Labour shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh told MPs: 'No fewer than 60 times, the Conservative Government committed to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail in full. Conservative Members stood on a manifesto to deliver it—and the eastern leg of HS2—in three consecutive elections. Just two months ago, at the Conservative party conference, the Prime Minister said it all again. I imagine that Conservative Members are feeling pretty ashamed of their Government today.'

Conservative MPs did not agree. Transport secretary Grant Shapps said: 'Our reforming vision marks a new era of investment and growth. The integrated rail plan starts to provide benefits to passengers and communities quickly, rather than leaving it for two decades as previously planned.'

Tory Paul Maynard, who is a former transport minister, added: 'The integrated rail plan does not contain everything I might wish and, like my hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough, I would rather see phase 2b, the eastern leg, go ahead. I would rather see Bradford served much better than it will be, but that does not make the integrated rail plan an incoherent and unrealistic package. … The nature of building railways is that we cannot predict how easy it will be. Plans will change and details will alter, but at least we now have a baseline for what can be delivered …'

In the non-binding vote at the end of the debate, the motion was supported by 139 opposition votes to nil. It was resolved: 'That this House recognises the importance of rail investment to the UK economy … regrets the Government’s decision not to deliver new high speed investment, Northern Powerhouse Rail in full … calls on the Government to deliver the new northern rail investment promised by the Prime Minister in full; and further calls on the Secretary of State for Transport to update the House in person before January 2022 on his Department’s benefit cost ratio analysis for the revised HS2 line.'