YP Letters: Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg would push North off track

IN your editorial (The Yorkshire Post, September 19), the commentary is absolutely correct to insist that a comprehensive and serious rail plan, linking HS2 and the whole of the rail network across the North, is not undermined by the political opportunism of Boris Johnson with his new-found scepticism for HS2 in order to satisfy his ambitions to become leader of the Conservative Party.

The Yorkshire Post says: HS2 and its remaining tests

Similar moves are being seen by another potential leadership contender Jacob Rees-Mogg, and it would unfortunately be “thin gruel” for the North if they both succeeded in their ambitions.

Despite billions and billions of pounds of investment already having been poured into London, in his recent commentary in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Johnson is now asking that London Crossrail 2 be a priority over HS2, despite the latter being a project that will eventually be the conduit for high-speed rail right across the whole of the UK.

Mr Johnson is a keen advocate of London Crossrail 1 and 2, the Thames Estuary Airport, the London Garden Bridge and a bridge across the English Channel, and yet has no plan to build rail capacity across the rest of the UK, which is “bursting at the seams”. Any leader of the UK should, as a first priority, address the interests of the whole of the country.