Labour had the chance to finally kill off HS2. Instead, it’s throwing more money into the pit | Simon Jenkins

HS2 will consume between a fifth and a quarter of the government’s entire investment budget of 113bn .

Over the course of this parliament, the 25.3bn extra that Rachel Reeves will spend on HS2 is significantly more than the outlay on prisons and new classrooms.

Reeves wants to build a railway from Birmingham to Euston at a price that is more than double the 39bn she wants to spend over the same decade on social housing.

Work at Euston has stopped, leaving a reported 400 families evicted from their homes and 25 hectares of dirt.

This is in Starmer ’s constituency.

Starmer should surely know that, on the day he took office, he should have done what Chris Christie of New Jersey did.