Rishi Sunak is still refusing to offer any detail on what he plans to do with HS2, suggesting in a round of broadcast interviews this lunchtime that he hasn’t yet made the final decision. He told Sky that: ‘I think it’s right that I’m not going to get forced into making premature decisions. Not on something that’s so important that costs this country tens of billions of pounds.’ Instead, he told the BBC, he would ‘approach this the same way I approach everything: thoughtfully, carefully, across the detail and making what I believe is the right decision in the long term for our country.’
Sunak’s camp have long believed that refusing to bow to the demands of the 24-hour news cycle makes for better government, and that voters reward a leader who is focused on getting things done, rather than merely talking about them. The calculation here seems to be that while there is a storm in Manchester about HS2, it will still be better to announce the decision at the time of the PM’s choosing, rather than rush.
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