Ed Balls has just taken the scalpel to HS2 in an interview with Steve Richards. He talked about the project having ‘huge fiscal implications’ and questioned whether the ‘benefits are really there’. He then went on to stress that the question was not just whether HS2 provided value for money, but whether it was the best use of £50 billion. As he emphasised, £50 billion could be used on other transport projects or new housing, hospitals and schools. One could see Balls gleefully contemplating just how much fiscal wriggle room cancelling HS2 would give him.
Now, Balls did say that Labour had not reached a final decision on what to do about HS2. But his direction of travel is clear and with HS2’s leading advocate Andrew Adonis refusing all interviews in Brighton, it looks like Balls is on course to win this argument inside the Labour party.
Balls was also busy pushing his idea that the OBR should audit the next Labour manifesto. He said that this would ‘stop the government making up facts about the opposition’. Balls suggested that if the coalition blocked this idea, they would be seeking the ‘freedom to smear, attack and promote falsehoods in the guise of the Treasury.’
On the inevitable briefing question, Balls declared that he had ‘never done or sanctioned a briefing against a shadow Cabinet or Cabinet colleague.’ He also said that he’d ‘been horrified’ by Damian McBride’s revelations.
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