Kevin Hollinrake, minister for postal services, says he welcomed the decision by former Post Office boss to hand back her CBE
The estimated cost of building HS2 between London and Birmingham has soared to as much as £66.6bn, HS2 Ltd executive chairman Sir Jon Thompson said.
As PA Media reports, Thompson told the Commons transport committee this morning that the estimated cost for phase 1 is between £49bn and £56.6bn at 2019 prices, but adjusting the range for current prices involves “adding somewhere between £8bn and £10bn”. He went on:
It is the government’s long-standing policy that infrastructure estimates are only updated at spending seview points, that’s my understanding of it.
So that’s why we’re still working to 2019 prices and the whole conversation about 2019, which is to be frank with you an administrative burden of some significance in the organisation.
Some 35 right-wingers so far are behind an amendment by Tory veteran Bill Cash (amendment number 10) to put “notwithstanding” clauses back in the bill — letting it defy international law.
They’re also backing a flood of amendments by ex-Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, including to … block most “suspensive claims” by migrants against their removal (19-22) … disapply the Human Rights Act to the new bill and last year’s Illegal Migration Act (11-18) … and make it the “default” that “rule 39” orders from the European Court of Human Rights are not binding (23-25).
