Shapps tells influential Tory MP he will scrap HS2 branch

Grant Shapps has privately promised to scrap a controversial £3bn branch of the HS2 train line that carves through the constituency of the 1922 Committee chair, Sir Graham Brady, and two other Tory MPs, the Guardian understands.

-  Rowena Maso

The link, known as the Golborne spur, would connect the main CreweManchester HS2 line to the west coast mainline just south of Wigan.

Brady, the MP for Altrincham and Sale West, which would be affected by the spur, wrote to a constituent last week saying Shapps had given him "categorical verbal assurances” that it would be removed from the HS2 bill going through parliament.

The link has been the subject of heated lobbying by MPs in the Warrington, Wigan and Trafford areas.

But the private assurances from Shapps to Brady, who runs the powerful 1922 Committee of backbenchers, may raise questions about why the transport secretary has not made public any decision.