Parliament yesterday debated the HS2 Paving Bill and passed it by 350-36.
225 Conservative MPs voted for it, including me - 18 Conservative MPs voted against.
Labour's official position was to support the legislation. Phil Wilson, the sensible Labour MP for Sedgefield gave a very good speech, but 11 Labour MPs voted against.
However, the interesting stat is this: only 74 Labour MPs bothered to actually turn up and vote for it. The rest were absent or abstained. Among those who bunked off was the Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls. Of course he may have had something more important to do.
But it might alternatively be a further clue that he is less supportive of the project than his Party’s official position would indicate.
At some stage the Labour Party are going to have to decide if they really support this scheme or not. As onbe critic put it: their voting record today amounts to a “don’t know.”
