David Cameron today accused Ed Miliband of having “cowered in his office” rather than standing up in support for HS2.
The Prime Minister claimed Mr Miliband was “too weak” to confront Ed Balls after the shadow chancellor made statements which left Labour’s support for HS2 in doubt.
It comes as Labour MPs, shadow ministers and council leaders called for Mr Miliband to get behind high-speed rail. At a private meeting last night Labour MPs also sent Mr Balls a message to “stop messing about” over the £42.6 billion scheme.
Mr Cameron said: “The shadow chancellor touring the radio studios telling everyone it won’t go ahead, Labour local authority leaders begging [Mr Miliband] to stand up for this infrastructure scheme.
“And what’s he done — cowered in his office, too weak to make a decision.”
A Labour spokesman sought to calm the row today by confirming that the party would back HS2 in a Commons vote tomorrow.
He said: “Our position on HS2 is as clear as it can be. We support HS2. But it’s right that there should not be a blank cheque and that we should examine the costs.”
One senior backbencher at last night’s meeting argued the leadership had “completely misjudged” the strength of MPs’ support for the scheme.
A source among the 40 MPs at last night’s meeting said: “[Shadow transport secretary] Mary Creagh came out with Ed Balls’s line about heavily caveated support and she seemed shocked by our response.
“We told her Ed Balls should stop messing about and that we needed the project to go ahead.”
Manchester MP Graham Stringer said: “The leadership have completely misjudged the mood both of the Parliamentary Labour Party and the party in the whole of the country.”
