Over French cuisine in a very fancy Birmingham restaurant, I got chatting with a former Tory minister at a Brexit dinner. I had been invited to the event at Tory conference as a supporter of the campaign to Leave the EU, but after some initial pleasantries about how unexpectedly well that was now going, the conversation turned to transport policy.
“Do you think there is any chance Theresa May will drop HS2?” I asked.
“No. They will start building it next year. And I’m very happy about that,” said the MP. “I was one of the first ministers to back high-speed rail.”
