UK politics live: Angela Rayner to face Chris Philp in PMQs clash after Labour attacks Tories over HS2 failings – UK Times

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is set to face questioning from Tory minister Chris Philp at Wednesday’s PMQs.

The shadow home secretary is likely to bring up the recent U-turn on a national inquiry for the grooming gangs scandal, as well as housing prices and the recent escalation between Israel and Iran.

Ms Rayner is taking Sir Keir Starmer’s place as he travels back from the G7 summit in Canada.

The prime minister’s problem is that making one U-turn gives your party an appetite for more, and anxious Labour MPs are feeling ravenous. Today, the government is publishing its Bill to reduce the welfare budget by £5bn, including controversial cuts to disability and sickness benefits. More than 150 Labour MPs are unhappy about the cuts, and about 50 might oppose them.

Ministers admit privately there will be “tweaks” – for example, disabled people will not lose their personal independence payment (PIP) for 13 weeks, rather than four – but they don’t go far enough for the rebels.

Read the full analysis from political columnist Andrew Grice here:

The annual rate of house price growth halved as a stamp duty holiday ended, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures.

The average UK house price increased by 3.5 per cent in the 12 months to April, halving from 7.0 per cent growth recorded in the 12 months to March this year.

The average UK house price in April was £265,000.

Average house prices increased to £286,000 (3.0 per cent annual growth) in England, £210,000 (5.3 per cent) in Wales, and £191,000 (5.8 per cent) in Scotland in the 12 months to April 2025.

Stamp duty discounts became less generous for some home buyers from April. Stamp duty applies in England and Northern Ireland.

During her statement to the House of Commons, transport secretary Heidi Alexander is set to announce a new chair of HS2 Ltd.

The current chair, Sir Jon Thompson, previously announced he would stand down in the spring of this year.

His replacement will be Mike Brown, according to The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Mr Brown is the former commissioner for Transport for London, who helped to oversee the delivery of Crossrail, the transport project which became London’s Elizabeth line.

With the cost of Britain’s flagship high-speed rail project soaring past £66 billion and its opening delayed yet again – this time well beyond 2033 – serious questions are being raised about the future of HS2, and what, if anything, should be salvaged.

What was once promised as a transformational national infrastructure project linking London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds has been continuously scaled back, plagued by spiralling budgets, environmental controversies, governance failures and now, fresh allegations of fraud.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is set to confirm to Parliament this week that the project will be delayed indefinitely, conceding there is “no reasonable way to deliver” HS2 on time or within budget.

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HS2 has reported a sub-contractor working on the rail line to HMRC following an internal probe into alleged fraud.

Last month a whistleblower threw a spotlight on two firms providing construction staff to a section of the high-speed line.

It was alleged that an HS2 sub-contractor had been falsely declaring self-employed workers as Paye (pay as you earn) salaried staff and charging an inflated rate for them, then submitting “fake” payslips, according to reports first published in the i newspaper last month.

A sub-contractor was suspended from HS2’s contractor Balfour Beatty Vinci’s (BBV) section of the line in the West Midlands, the newspaper added.

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HS2 was originally due to run between London and Birmingham, then onto Manchester and Leeds, but the project was severely curtailed by the Conservatives in power because of spiralling costs.

The first phase was initially planned to open by the end of 2026, but this was pushed back to between 2029 and 2033.

In 2013, HS2 was estimated to cost £37.5 billion (at 2009 prices) for the entire planned network, including the now-scrapped extensions from Birmingham.

In June last year, HS2 Ltd assessed the cost for the line between London and Birmingham would be up to £66 billion.

Concerns about the costs of the stunted project have persisted.

Revelations in November last year that HS2 Ltd spent £100 million on a bat tunnel aimed at mitigating the railway’s environmental impact stunned Westminster, and were singled out by Sir Keir Starmer for criticism.

Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin on today’s upcoming PMQs:

With Keir Starmer still returning from the G7 in Canada its deputy prime minister Angela Rayner’s time in the ring at PMQs.

The deputy prime minister has not held back in the past, bringing her usual brand of punchy politics to the job.

But don’t expect a showdown between her and the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.

Traditionally, party leaders only take on other party leaders at PMQs. So Ms Badenoch is expected to send out one of her deputies instead.

Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin gives her analysis:

Expect a lot of blame being apportioned to the last Conservative government when the transport secretary gives an update on HS2 to MPs later.

The beleaguered project will now be delayed – even after Rishi Sunak scrapped its northern leg.

Communities up and down the country have been affected by the build for the high-speed rail line for years.

And a delay is just another blow. It’s also the last thing Labour needs as it struggles in the polls, firefighting on the domestic front while facing a series of crises internationally.

The UK has been turned into an international “laughing stock” over the failure to control the HS2 rail project, a minister acknowledged.

Housing and planning minister Matthew Pennycook said there were “serious problems” with HS2 “in terms of accountability, project overruns, costs”.

He told LBC the way HS2 and other infrastructure projects had been handled “reflect very poorly on us” as a country.

He said the Planning and Infrastructure Bill includes a number of changes that will “speed up the consenting process for nationally significant infrastructure” and this week’s infrastructure strategy “seeks to reverse the frankly erratic decisions and underinvestment we’ve seen over the past 14 years”.

“So we do need to learn the lessons, take a different approach, ensure that we’re getting infrastructure investment going in, certainty and stability about investment and getting to grip with project timelines and costs.

“Because I think, frankly, when it comes to HS2, in some ways, we’re a bit of a laughing stock around the world in terms of how we handle infrastructure. As a Government, we’re absolutely determined to turn that around.”