Plans for a controversial third runway at Heathrow airport will be scrapped if the Conservatives win the election, the party has said.

Instead shadow transport secretary Theresa Villers said a Tory Government would spend £20billion on a high-speed rail line between London’s St Pancras, where the Eurostar is based, and Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.

In an interview with the Guardian Ms Villers said they party hoped to cut 66,000 flights a year by encouraging more people to use the train.

If elected Ms Villers promised her party would spend £15.6billion over 12 years on the scheme with an extra £4.4billion coming from the private sector.

The rail line is estimated to cut journey times from 125 minutes to 80 minutes from London to Manchester and from 55 minutes to 17 minutes between Manchester and Leeds.

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