Lichfield’s MP says he has released an old UKIP manifesto in a bid to highlight what he claims are inconsistencies in their stance over high speed rail.
The controversial HS2 route, which will cut through parts of Lichfield and the surrounding villages, has been accused of being delivered on the orders of Brussels by UKIP MEP Mike Nattrass.
But Lichfield’s Conservative MP Michael Fabricant says UKIP’s stance on the issue does not sit comfortably alongside their 2010 manifesto, which has since been deleted from the party’s website.
However, the Tory MP has now released the document.
“I have done so because of UKIP’s continual claim that HS2 is an instruction from Brussels,” he said. “Yet in the 2010 UKIP Manifesto, UKIP promised four high speed rail routes!”
The 2010 manifesto claimed that the party would “invest in three new 200mph plus high-speed rail lines, including a new line between London and Newcastle with a spur to Manchester, a London-Bristol-Exeter line and a linking route via Birmingham”. Plans were also suggesting a high-speed rail service “to London, the UK and the Continent” from a new airport in the Thames Estuary.
Mr Fabricant added: “I am not surprised that the manifesto has been deleted from UKIP’s website as it puts the lie to their campaign claims regarding HS2.”
UKIP leader Nigel Farage has previously dismissed his party’s 2010 manifesto as “drivel”.
