The Government’s HS2 plans are facing backlash from Red Wall Tory MPs as Boris Johnson has promised faster journeys.

       In an announcement to the Commons at 10:30am, the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps will reveal the Government’s updated rail plans, expected to include the scrapping of HS2 between the East Midlands and Leeds.

       Writing in the Yorkshire Post, the Prime Minister promised "faster journeys, to more places, more quickly" for Yorkshire.

       However, the Integrated Rail Plan (IRP), which will be published while Mr Shapps is speaking to MPs, is expected to show major revisions to previously announced goals.

       Jon Collins, former HS2 East Midlands Chair, told Sky News: "Same old story for the Midlands...that's going to cause very significant economic harm to this part of the country".

       He urged the PM to U-turn on the decision, saying this is about "shaping the whole future of the economy of our country" and adding that it would be a "one-time major strategic mistake" to not go through with the original plans.

       Lord Jim O’Neill, former treasury minister and Vice Chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the move to scrap the Eastern leg of HS2 seemed "a very strange risk-return calculation both economically and politically".

       He added: "Given the amount of uproar it will cause in Red Wall seats and Tory northern MPs, especially in the current time, I’m not quite sure why they’ve done it."

       While the Government has touted the programme as part of its move towards levelling up the country, the move to axe the high-speed rail plans between the East Midlands and Leeds will save tens of billions of pounds.

       Concerns have also grown over expected work on east-west connections across the North, which are likely to involve upgrades to existing infrastructure rather than a new line between Manchester and Leeds.

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       Shadow secretary of state for transport Jim McMahon has told Times Radio the North is being betrayed by the decision to scrap part of the HS2 extension.

       He said: "We are not going to see the level of investment our region needs to thrive in the future and more than that, the Government just being honest about what that code means or trying to present it almost in a way that people should be grateful, that at least we're getting crumbs off the table, and that's just not good enough.

       "We want to hold the Government to account for the promises that they made because it goes beyond actually just transport investment. It goes to the heart of politics."

       The Chancellor should have "had the guts" to announce that HS2 was not going to go ahead in the recent Budget, according to Rachel Reeves, who accused the Government of having "entirely the wrong priorities".

       Ms Reeves, the shadow chancellor and MP for Leeds West, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We had the budget just a couple of weeks ago and the Chancellor found money to scrap air passenger duty on short-haul flights.

       "Two weeks later the Prime Minister says that they are going to scrap HS2 going to Sheffield and Leeds.

       "If you can find money to cut the air passenger duty for domestic flights but you can't invest in our rail transport infrastructure, I just think that is entirely the wrong priorities.

       "The Chancellor should have had the guts to stand up in parliament at the Budget and announce then that this crucial transport infrastructure that will deliver the growth and jobs that we need in the north of England wasn't going to go ahead and yet those carbon-emitting flights will be increasing."

       Boris Johnson admitted on Wednesday that he had "crashed the car" in his handling of the Owen Paterson case, saying for the first time that the former Tory MP had broken lobbying rules.

       The Prime Minister also conceded that he had made a "mistake" and felt "regret" over ordering MPs to vote to delay a decision on whether Mr Paterson should be suspended from Parliament.

       "On a clear road I crashed the car into a ditch," he told Tory backbenchers at a meeting of the 1922 committee after two weeks of damaging "sleaze" headlines.

       The comments were an attempt to draw a line under a fortnight of political damage since the vote on Mr Paterson's case. It has resulted in the Tories slumping behind Labour in multiple opinion polls and growing disquiet in the party over plans to limit MPs' second jobs.

       Read more: I crashed the car over Owen Paterson case, admits Boris Johnson

       Jon Collins, former HS2 East Midlands Chair, told Sky News: "Same old story for the Midlands...that's going to cause very significant economic harm to this part of the country".

       He continued: "I'm not that surprised (at the decision)...The real damage that will be done to the East Midlands the Eastern side of England is that what you're going to see is the investment and the opportunity that would have gone to Nottingham, to Sheffield, to Leeds, to the communities in between, effectively being sucked to the Western side of the country...and also being sucked back to London. That was the problem that HS2 was set to tackle."

       He urged the PM to U-turn on the decision, saying this is about "shaping the whole future of the economy of our country" and adding that it would be a "one-time major strategic mistake" to not go through with the Eastern leg of HS2. He also added that the PM had U-turned on much less significant matters.

       Grant Shapps will announce the package to the Commons at around 10.30am, with the Integrated Rail Plan published online simultaneously.

       Two things on the agenda today are fallout from Boris Johnson's admission in a meeting of the 1922 Committee that he "crashed the car" in his handling of the row over former MP Owen Paterson and the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) due today in which the Eastern leg of HS2 is set to be scrapped.

       The Department for Transport will publish its IRP featuring ￡96 billion of investment in the Midlands and the North, in which a high-speed line running from the East Midlands to Leeds is set to be scrapped in favour of updates to the existing track.

       This is a major revision to previously announced goals.

       The Government will also now be hoping it can turn the page on a fortnight-long sleaze row over second jobs, as MPs voted 297 to nil last night to back Downing Street plans to restrict outside work to "reasonable limits" and prohibit parliamentary advice or consultancy.

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