Thank you, madam Deputy Presiding Officer. I move this motion in the name of Neil Hamilton.

We move the motion that HS2 is abandoned and the resulting savings used to upgrade the existing network throughout the whole of the UK, including those in Wales. We argue that it is not too late to end this potentially disastrous project as although £2 billion has already been spent, not one spade of turf has yet been cut.

HS2 is a mode of transport designed to take pampered businessmen from London to a few cities in the north at a cost of many billions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money—£55 billion according to the latest estimate, but rising rapidly. In addition, the human and environmental cost is immeasurable in that this project calls for the destruction of at least 58 farms and many thousands of family homes. In fact, the proposed change to the route near Sheffield will call for destruction of a whole housing estate, which is, at this very moment, in the course of construction. All very ironic given that we are in the midst of catastrophic housing shortages, including in Sheffield itself, with 28,000 on its social housing waiting list.