Sunak said the new track would now stop in Birmingham and not go on to Manchester, a decision widely expected after days of rumours.

He said it no longer made sense to continue with HS2 after its costs had doubled and following changes to business travel patterns since the pandemic.

“I am cancelling the rest of the HS2 project,” he told the Conservative Party conference.

“We will reinvest every single penny, £36 billion, in hundreds of new transport projects in the north and the Midlands, across the country.”

HS2 had been billed as Europe’s biggest infrastructure project, but costs had soared to over £106 billion at a 2020 estimate from the £56 billion bill forecast in 2015, and the eastern link to Leeds had already been scrapped.

Northern politicians and business leaders have repeatedly warned that scrapping the Manchester connection would damage the region’s growth prospects and have accused the government of prioritising investment in the more prosperous south.