With a multi-billion gap in public finances exacerbated by the disastrous Mini-Budget looming over the Government’s Autumn Statement, comments by Michael Gove suggesting HS2 budgets could be in the firing line do not bode well for Yorkshire.

It has already been almost a year since the controversial Integrated Rail Plan was published in which the long-planned HS2 route from Birmingham to Leeds was scrapped, partly for financial reasons, in favour of a shorter-high speed stopping in the East Midlands instead of Yorkshire.

The concession offered by Boris Johnson’s Government at the time was that a £100m study would be launched to assess how best to connect Leeds to the HS2 network – potentially including restoring the direct line to the city.

However, that study is yet to even begin let alone get close to making conclusions.

Michael Gove has suggested "painful" spending decisions will have to be taken by the Government - potentially affecting the future of HS2 (Photo by JEFF OVERS/BBC/AFP via Getty Images)

With returning Levelling Up Secretary Mr Gove now indicating that HS2 spending is likely to be reviewed as part of broader plans to cut capital spending, the chances of Yorkshire getting a HS2 service worthy of the name seem increasingly slim. Work is already well under way building the first phase of HS2 in the South – making the chances of the Government committing to additional spending in the North appear even more limited.

But as Shadow Transport Secretary and Yorkshire MP Louise Haigh has rightly pointed out, such a “saving” represents a false economy with a failure to invest holding back economic growth.

Final confirmation that HS2 will not get to Yorkshire will be another hammer blow to the “levelling up” agenda.

Chances of HS2 reaching region are receding further: The Yorkshire Post says