JACK Straw said he was committed to the HS2 high-speed rail project which will result in benefits to local rail services in the north.

The Blackburn MP told Sky News’s Murnaghan programme: “It will hugely benefit the north west of England.

“But there are people who say if you have spent all this money, some billions, running a high speed rail link to the north west and to Yorkshire, then that is less money available for local improvements to the railway services in Lancashire and Greater Manchester and Yorkshire.”