Theresa May has full confidence in Chris Grayling despite 'totally unacceptable' Northern rail misery and cancelled meetings, No10 says

The Prime Minister has “tremendous sympathy” with those suffering continuing delays and cancellations despite the introduction of temporary timetables designed to halt the disruption, her official spokesman added.

The spokesman also revealed the Transport Secretary will update MPs on the chaos in a House of Commons statement on Monday afternoon.

But it came as MPs revealed they were having scheduled meetings later in the day with Mr Grayling and Rail Minister Jo Johnson to discuss the problems faced by their constituents cancelled or rearranged as demand has been too high.

Labour MP for Wigan Lisa Nandy tweeted: "You literally could not make this up. Chris Grayling is having to rearrange or cancel meetings with MPs about Northern today because he underestimated demand and cannot make the timetable work.

"The DfT (Department for Transport) did not foresee the large numbers of MPs who would want a meeting, or that they might need to make a statement. Is there any understanding of the scale of this crisis in Whitehall?"

The DfT denied cancelling meetings, insisting some had to be postponed so Mr Grayling could give his Commons statement.

A source said: “Between the statement to the House and MP meetings, the Transport Secretary has set aside from about 2pm this afternoon to until about 10pm tonight to speak to colleagues. Some meetings today now have to be moved as this morning we were granted a statement on this issue. No meetings have been cancelled.”

Earlier, Mrs May's spokesman was asked whether the PM retained full confidence in Mr Grayling, replying: “Yes.”

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Number 10 also echoed the Transport Secretary’s criticism of Network Rail’s failure to finalise the timetable changes in good time, which the Government has mainly blamed for the chaos on routes served by Northern, as well as Govia Thameslink services in the South.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "We have tremendous sympathy with everyone who has had their rail journey delayed or disrupted, what we have seen has been totally unacceptable.

"The Transport Secretary is in constant talks with Network Rail and he has been clear to them that they were too late in finalising the timetable changes and that this must not happen again.

“As I say the Transport Secretary I’d expect to update the House later today.

“Train companies are working to minimise disruption and while what we’ve seen has clearly been terrible disruptive, we are investing in the biggest modernisation of the railways since Victorian times and this timetable will deliver hundreds more services up and down the country.”

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Asked where the buck stops, the spokesman said: “The Transport Secretary is going to give an update to the House, I don’t want to pre-empt that too much.

“But he has been clear with Network Rail that he believes they were too late in finalising the timetable changes and he believes this shouldn’t happen again.”

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Meanwhile, a cross-party group of southern MPs asked whether the DfT was aware that delays to Network Rail’s finalisation of the timetable changes had left just three weeks between their confirmation and the launch date, rather than 12 as planned, and if so why the introduction of the new timetable was not delayed by Mr Grayling.

The 20 MPs, significantly including Tories Bim Afolami, Sir Nicholas Soames and Tim Loughton, demanded answers in a letter to the Transport Secretary.