The “reallocation” is bullshit. If they’re spending money in Manchester in the next few years it isn’t the same money that would’ve been used for HS2 because that wasn’t due to be delivered until later. And the majority of the projects are just things they’ve already promised to do before and have already been neglecting. The tory manifesto of 2015 promised electrification of the midland main line to Sheffield, and notably the new list of promises won’t bring the massive increase in capacity that HS2 would have, and that we need. On top of that a quarter of this money is going to fixing potholes…
There’s many reasons why HS2’s costs have risen, but notably it was the tories who’ve been in power the whole time and have had the opportunity to look into it, but have decided it isn’t worth the effort apparently.