He had no socks on
17:41, 07 Oct 2025Updated 18:34, 07 Oct 2025
Former West Midlands mayor Andy Street(Image: Getty Images)
It was a ‘fateful’ night in Manchester. One that followed a frantic few days for local leaders trying to keep the dream of HS2 alive.
But while Andy Burnham and others from Greater Manchester were locked out from conversations about the future of the high-speed railway, another Andy found himself in Rishi Sunak’s bedroom. Andy Street, who was the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands at the time, was invited to the then Prime Minister’s hotel room to make his case to save the Northern leg of the controversial project.
Speaking at the Conservative Party conference, two years on, the ex-mayor who lost his seat last year recalled the meeting in Mr Sunak’s room where he met the Prime Minister – who had no shoes on – at the height of what he called the ‘battle of Manchester’.
Mr Sunak would go on to announce the cancellation of HS2 Phase 2, but Mr Street was pleased about the concessions he secured, claiming credit for the high-speed line starting at Euston in central London as planned, rather than terminating at Old Oak Common.
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However, the former Tory mayor believes that his interventions cost him his job, claiming he never dealt with the government again.
He said: “We did, literally, in the night before his speech, get him to agree that it would go to Euston and it would go to Handsacre – a place that no one’s ever heard of, but it connects to the West Coast Mainline – and it kept the idea alive.
“Because at some point well after I’m six-foot under, and indeed, so is Rishi Sunak – no disrespect – but somebody will say, ‘hang on a minute, we’ve got a high-speed line to Handsacre’.
“Where’s that? Manchester Airport is 45 miles further north, [the] easiest 45 miles on the whole network. Someone will think we might actually connect to Northern Powerhouse Rail.”
The comments come after Chancellor Rachel Reeves committed to Northern Powerhouse Rail – a new line across the north of England which was initially supposed to link up with HS2 in Manchester. However, the government is yet to confirm where this line will go.
Following the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2, Mr Street joined forces with his Greater Manchester counterpart to make the case for a cheaper railway line, financed by the private sector, to be built north of Handsacre as an alternative to phase 2 of HS2.
Rishi Sunak announced the cancellation of the Northern leg of HS2 during his party conference speech two years ago(Image: Getty Images)
He and Mr Burnham argued that something needed to be done as the West Coast Mainline and the M6 motorway reach capacity.
However, speaking at the Conservative Party conference two years on, Mr Street, who lost the West Midlands mayoral election by 1,508 votes to Labour’s Richard Parker the following May said that his efforts to save HS2, cost him the job he’d held for seven years.
He said: “I have to say it probably cost me my job, but I did the right thing. I did the right thing because it was in the interest of residents of the West Midlands.
“But I never had any further dealings with the Conservative government after I dealt with that. I was the Conservative candidate in the mayoral election but I had no support from the Conservatives.
He added: “The wonderful thing that happened after we lost that battle here on that fateful night, we did keep the vision alive by bringing in the private sector and even now, we’ve still kept the safeguarding [of land] on the route from Handsacre to Manchester alive.”
The Labour government is yet to set out its plans to improve rail connectivity between the West Midlands and Greater Manchester.
An announcement about Northern Powerhouse Rail is expected to be made before the autumn budget at the end of November.