Reality Check

Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) was first announced by the former Conservative Chancellor George Osborne in 2014, external – where he referred to a "third high speed rail" which would connect Manchester to Leeds.

Soon after becoming prime minister in 2019, Boris Johnson reaffirmed he wanted to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail "with a pledge to fund the Leeds to Manchester route", which would "turbo-charge the economy".

The Conservative Party manifesto, external also promised to "build Northern Powerhouse Rail".

However, while the government has now said there will not be a new line between the cities, it insists it’s still delivering NPR through additional investment. It says upgrades to the existing route will cut journey times and increase capacity much sooner than the previous plans.

Image source, House of Commons

The debate is continuing in the Commons, where Labour's Hilary Benn, who represents Leeds Central, says Boris Johnson had "repeatedly promised" that HS2 and the new high-speed Leeds-Manchester line would be "built in full".

"Today that promise has been broken, and Leeds and the North have been betrayed," he adds.

He also adds that the government's plan for higher-speed track will leave a "great big hole" between Sheffield and the East Midlands where Victorian-era railway will remain.

Grant Shapps says the journey time from Leeds to Manchester will be "slashed" because of upgrades to the existing line.

He also says there is "a lot for Leeds in this package" - including the plans for the new regional rail system.

Image source, PA Media

Boris Johnson is speaking to us following Grant Shapps' rail announcements for England.

The PM calls it a "monumental programme for rail investment, for commuters, for passengers in the East Midlands, the West Midlands and the whole of the north of the country."

He says not only is the government building HS2 but it is also putting in a crossrail in the north from Manchester to Leeds.

He says the "key thing" from the East Midlands point of view is that the plan is not only electrifying the Midlands mainline but HS2 high speed trains will also serve big towns better.

"For the first time in the history of our country you'll have a high speed link from Birmingham to Nottingham," he says. This will cut the journey from 1 hr 40 to 26 minutes, he says.

"These are massive massive gains," he says.

Caroline Davies
Transport correspondent

Image source, PA Media

As expected, HS2 will not go to Leeds but stop at East Midlands Parkway and Northern Powerhouse Rail will not mean a new line between Manchester and Leeds, although the transport secretary has said there will be a high speed link between Warrington to Manchester and on to West Yorkshire.

Labour have already said the government has broken one of their key promises on levelling up, but some Conservative MPs that back both projects have so far kept their powder dry, waiting for the details of the announcement.

The minister promised faster journeys and more capacity sooner than HS2 would have delivered.

Many will be picking through the details to know how the government hopes to achieve that and whether they feel they can sell it to their constituents.

The transport secretary also didn’t say the eastern leg is scrapped altogether, but that they would continue to look at how to bring high speed trains to Leeds. That potentially leaves both supporters and critics in limbo if they think there’s a chance the line could come back.

Next up is the SNP's Gavin Newlands who thanks Shapps for his announcements but says he had read most of it beforehand in the newspapers.

He calls the new plan the most "bullish U-turn I've yet seen in this place".

He says the original plan has been "salami sliced until all that's left is a Birmingham to London shuttle with a few token services to Manchester, benefiting few and costing us all".

Reality Check

The decision not to go ahead with the eastern leg of HS2 goes back on previous government pledges that the high-speed route to Leeds would be built.

As recently as May, for example, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the Birmingham to Leeds link would go ahead – and would be delivered earlier than planned.

"We are going to complete HS2 and include HS2 on the eastern leg to Leeds," he said.

The only question, Shapps said, was how it could be integrated with Northern Powerhouse Rail between Manchester and Leeds.

Shapps suggested the eastern leg - originally scheduled for completion between 2035 and 2040 - could be brought forward "quite dramatically" by building it "in a smarter way".

Grant Shapps responded to his Labour counterpart by saying the £96bn of expenditure benefits the Midlands and North.

"This is a brand new high speed line from Warrington to Manchester to West of Yorkshire and yet he doesn't think that exists," he says.

He says the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has previously called for the government to cancel HS2.

Shapps says today nearly 400 miles of track electrification is announced in contrast with the 63 miles of track Labour managed to electrify in 13 years in office.

The shadow transport secretary is dubbing the new plan a "great train robbery".

"The scaling back of Northern Powerhouse rail coupled with the scrapping of the eastern leg of HS2 are a massive blow for our regions," he says.

"Both schemes would have created 150,000 new jobs connecting 13 million people in our towns cities and industrial heartlands," he says.

He says working people will be paying 50% more to get to work than they did a decade ago.

Labour would reform transport networks so they work for working people, he says.

He says spending would be spread more evenly around the country to ensure opportunities are created in every region.

With Grant Shapps' statement over, MPs begin to ask questions.

Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon asks Shapps what he is proud of in his announcement.

And he asks if it is the betrayal of trust, promises and investment the Midlands and the North deserve.

"He hasn't just forgotten us he's completely sold us out," he says.

Shapps says work on the Integrated Rail Plan will start by Christmas, with communities across the north of England and the Midlands benefitting much earlier than planned as ministers take a fresh look at HS2.

He concludes his statement by saying the plan will allow the government to build a better railway, provide similar or better services to almost every destination and improve the "outdated vision" drawn up for HS2 a decade ago.

Shapps finishes by saying: "This plan will bring the North and the Midlands closer together, it will fire up economies to rival London and the South East, it will rebalance our economic geography, it will spread opportunity, it will level up the country, it will bring benefits at least a decade or more earlier."

Image source, PA Media

Grant Shapps says "after decades of decline, with constrained capacity and poor reliability" the new plan will give passengers in the North and Midlands "the service they need and deserve".

He says it is not just about infrastructure and announces £360m to reform fares and ticketing with contactless ticketing to 700 urban stations - including 400 in the north.

The transport secretary says it is a "landmark plan", with more seats, more frequent services and shorter journeys.

He adds that the government is getting started immediately with £625m for the electrification between Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds.

And he says there is a further £249m to electrify the Midlands mainline.

Grant Shapps listed some of the cuts to journey times he says this revised plan will deliver.

• Rail journeys between Birmingham and Nottingham cut from an 1 hour 15, to 26 minutes
• York and Manchester down from 83 minutes to 55 minutes
• Bradford to Leeds in 12 minutes - almost half the time it takes today

• Trips from Newcastle to Birmingham will be slashed by almost 30 minutes
• Durham and Darlington will benefit from smoother and more reliable trains

Shapps says: "We are about to embark on one of the biggest single acts of levelling up of any government in history."

He says the budget is five times more than was spent on CrossRail and 10 times more than was spent on the Olympics.

He says this revised plan will achieve the same, similar or faster journey times to London and on the core Northern Powerhouse network than the original and bring the benefits years earlier.

It will double - if not -triple capacity on some services, he says.

Shapps adds that his new blueprint delivers three high-speed lines: Crewe to Manchester; Birmingham to the East Midlands, with HS2 lines continuing to central Nottingham and central Derby and Sheffield and Chesterfield on an upgraded mainline.

Thirdly, he says there will be a brand new high-speed line from Warrington to Manchester and to the western border of Yorkshire, which Shapps says will slash journey times across the north of England.

Grant Shapps says that when he became transport secretary the HS2 plan was about 10 years old and says that a "rethink was needed".

He says the Integrated Rail Plan was designed to deliver sooner. He says HS2 was "designed in isolation" from the rest of the transport network and says that it should work alongside local and regional services.

Shapps says that it was recommended that strengthening regional rail would be most beneficial for the North and Midlands "connecting towns with main railway networks, bringing hope and opportunity to communities who for too long felt left behind".

He says the Integrated Rail Plan is an "ambitious and unparalleled programme".

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is now on his feet in the House of Commons to deliver a statement on the government's Integrated Rail Plan.

He begins by saying the £96bn programme will transform services in the north and the Midlands

He calls it the "largest single rail investment ever made by a UK government".

He says it will benefit 8 out of 10 of the busiest rail corridors across the Midlands and north.

It will deliver faster journeys, increased capacity and more frequent services up to 10 years sooner than previously planned, he says.

We've been getting some early reaction to the news that the East Midlands to Leeds leg of HS2 will be scrapped.

Nick Garthwaite, director of chemical manufacturer Christeyns Ltd in Bradford and vice chair of the West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, says he is disappointed.

"I feel the city and its people have been betrayed - we might not get the through railway station that Bradford so desperately needs and indeed was tacitly promised by government over a long period of time," he tells the BBC.

A key concern for businesses in Bradford is trying to attract more talent to come to work there, so not having good transport links is a problem.

"What I'm worried about is that these young talented people in Bradford will be thinking twice about staying in the city," he says.

Mr Garthwaite says it was likely that businesses would also consider locating new factories in other parts of England.

We're just waiting for Grant Shapps to start speaking in the House of Commons - MPs are currently discussing the Northern Ireland protocol.

When that's finished, the transport secretary will be next up.

We will bringing you all the key updates here.

Image source, Getty Images

You've probably heard the phrase "levelling up" a lot recently, and you certainly will be today.

That's because it has been a key part of the government's recent agenda.

The idea is that people and communities that feel they have been left behind get a chance to catch up.

In its manifesto in 2019, external, the Conservative Party said it would be "levelling up every part of the UK", which would involve:

• Investing in towns, cities, and rural and coastal areas
• Giving those areas more control of how investment is made
• Levelling up skills using apprenticeships and a £3bn National Skills Fund
• Making life much easier for farming and fishing industries
• Creating up to 10 freeports to help deprived communities.

Improving transport infrastructure is seen as a key part of levelling up which is why some critics have suggested the plan to scrap the Leeds leg of HS2 undermines that agenda.

Read more on levelling up here.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

A Yorkshire parish councillor at the end of the planned HS2 line says he has champagne ready to celebrate the scrapping of the eastern leg.

Image source, LDRS

Church Fenton councillor Andrew Mason says the planned 15 metre-high viaduct running along the edge of the village would have been a disaster for the environment.

The village was to be on a spur where HS2 would have connected with the existing East Coast mainline on the way to York.

Mason says the expectation that this part of the line will be scrapped is "delightful news".

"The government is saying what we've said for eight years – that we can do local improvements," he says.

"There are people in Church Fenton, Swillington, Oulton, Mexborough, up and down the line, whose lives have been destroyed by this."