PM would need to offer voters in the north of England an alternative. Whether they believe him is another matter

UK politics live – latest updates

It was on Halloween almost 10 years ago that MPs voted to spend £37.5bn on building a high-speed railway line from London to Birmingham, with spurs to Manchester and Leeds. Three hundred and fifty voted aye and 34 against.

Rishi Sunak did not follow the party whip that day; he was still working for a hedge fund in California. Nor did Keir Starmer. It was his last day as director of public prosecutions, and two years before he would be elected as a Labour MP. David Cameron was the prime minister and claimed the new railway lines would be finished by 2033.