Rural Conservative resignations over high speed rail?
Some Conservatives - and their wealthy donors - in more than a dozen seats between London and Birmingham on the line of the proposed High Speed rail line (HS2) are threatening to leave the party over the plan.
The new line, which would pass through Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire, could bring the rail journey between the UK's two largest cities down to 40 minutes.
But Transport Secretary Philip Hammond told David Thompson from the Politics Show: "All the people I have heard so far making the case against the scheme, just happen, by coincidence, to live along the line of route, now, you may drawn your own conclusions from that."
He said the government would try and persuade them of the benefits, but doubted he would win them all over.
