DISQUIET within the Conservative Party may have been bubbling for a while but it has begun to boil over with decisions on second jobs and part of the HS2 rail line scrapped in what has been described as a "betrayal of trust" to the North of England.
The HS2 high-speed rail line links London and Birmingham in its first phase and then will extend north to Manchester and Marsden and a separate line will go to the East Midlands Parkway, near Derby and Nottingham.
However, a further extension to Leeds has now been scrapped by the Tory government in a move that has caused many to say the Prime Minister has reneged on promises to the North of England.
READ MORE: Northern mayors: Scaled down HS2 plans are ‘betrayal’ and ‘second class’
The announcement that the eastern leg of HS2 would be scrapped in favour of an integrated rail plan intended to cut journey times and increase services, was met with expected derision from Labour with Keir Starmer saying Boris Johnson "ripped up" promises to the north and adding that you "can't believe a word" he says.
Closer to home for the PM, Tory MPs signalled their criticism of him with Huw Merriman, chairman of the Commons Transport Committee, said voters had been led to expect more from the Prime Minister.
“This is the danger in selling perpetual sunlight and leaving the others to explain the arrival of moonlight,” he said.
Robbie Moore, the Tory MP for Keighley, said he was “deeply disappointed” by the plan, which had “completely short-changed” his constituents.
“We are one of the most socially deprived parts of the UK and we must get better transport connectivity,” he said.
And others have also voiced displeasure that the line has not been scrapped completely.
READ MORE: Tory Culture Secretary under fire for publicly censuring Laura Kuenssberg
Craig Tracey, Tory MP for North Warwickshire, an area just outside Birmingham, said it is “really difficult” to share the optimism in the announcement because it is “very disappointing to hear that HS2 will not be scrapped in full”.
He added: “I know my constituents will share that disappointment. We are the most affected constituency with Phase 1 and now Phase 2b, and yet we have not seen any of the benefits. We are only seeing families, communities and businesses devastated as a result.”
Gainsborough MP Sir Edward Leigh said: “HS2 was always a white elephant, but as far as the east coast is now concerned it is a white elephant missing a leg."
Second jobs fiasco
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The second jobs fiasco loosely began with Owen Paterson's lobbying suspension, extended with Geoffrey Cox's (above) legal work in the Caribbean and hit a crescendo in Westminster when the Government proposed plans to curb MPs taking work outside of their public duties.
A vote on the Tory government's plans on Thursday saw 297 Conservative MPs vote in favour with opposition parties abstaining and around 63 Tory members not casting a vote.
Indeed, four Tories even voted in favour of Labour's rival motion which would have imposed a clear parliamentary timetable for implementing reform.
The Tory proposal looks to ban MPs from taking paid political consultancies and limits the time they can spend doing second jobs, but Labour said that it was a "watered down" version of their original motion.
Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab said the reason dozens of Tories didn't vote for Johnson's plans was due to it being a “late-ish vote”.
Asked by Sky News if he accepts unrest among Tory backbenchers, Raab said: “You’ll always hear one or other disgruntled individual anonymously in the media on whichever side of the debate, my sense is overwhelmingly MPs want us to fix the problem.”
Asked then if there is no unrest, he responded: “Not sure I’d put it in that idyllic way, there’s always debate amongst MPs, but the most important thing is we’re fixing the problem.”
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