BURY South MP Ivan Lewis has demanded the government give full details of the costs of the HS2 high-speed rail link between London and the North-West.

As the House of Commons approved the Bill allowing work to start on the link from the West Midlands to Crewe, the Independent backbencher said: "I am agnostic about HS2.

"The reason I have become agnostic is that I am absolutely convinced that MPs and people in this country are not being given full, appropriate and adequate information on cost and capacity and whether it can be delivered in budget and on time, in the way that ministers have suggested.

"I would like to reveal that a report costing at least £1million was commissioned from a well-known consultant, which did not say what HS2 wanted it to say. That report was more or less shredded; it was certainly never put in the public domain or shared with Parliament.

"We know that the costs have escalated time and time again. I am not saying that HS2 should be scrapped, but to make a rational, proper judgment on its viability, desirability and achievability, we have to have full possession of the facts."