THE potential abandonment of the HS2 high-speed rail link to the East Midlands and Yorkshire has been slammed as “idiotic” by the leader of rail staff union TSSA.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is this week expected to announce the dumping of the eastern wing of the line from Birmingham to Leeds, though the western link to Manchester is expected to remain intact.

Government plans for a new “northern powerhouse” trans-Pennine line are also expected to be abandoned.

Mr Shapps’s announcement is not expected until Thursday, but the speculation has already prompted criticism from Tory MPs in constituencies in Yorkshire and north-east England.

TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes has written to Mr Shapps saying that if true, the abandonment of the plans would be “a betrayal of northern towns, cities and multiple communities,” and would “leave a gaping hole in the claims of your government regarding ‘levelling-up’.”

He said it would be “idiocy and a dereliction of duty to abandon these projects.”

Mr Cortes told Mr Shapps: “I know you are well-acquainted with the economic and environmental reasons for investing in rail.

“As we seek to recover from the coronavirus pandemic and meet the challenges of tackling climate change, investing in clean, integrated, high-speed rail infrastructure seems a gift to both the economy and our climate goals.”

He called for them to be completed “in full,” with HS2 also extended to Scotland in order to “reap the full benefits of a 21st-century high-speed rail network for Britain.”