Labor claims to have seen a leaked document admitting delays in the HS2 rail project announced last week could “raise costs” and could leave companies bust.
Shadow Transport Minister Louise Haigh told MPs a paper from “senior officials” showed some areas where high-speed services had been promised could be scrapped altogether.
Ms Haigh also said the route could end outside of London by 2041.
The government said it had not commented on leaks.
Last week Transport Secretary Mark Harper announced that the HS2 Birmingham to Crewe route would be delayed by two years to help spread spending as costs soar due to higher inflation.
Ms Haigh told the House of Commons that in the documents “they admit it will cost jobs… construction firms could go bust”.
She added: “You cannot rule out that high-speed trains serving Stoke, Macclesfield and Stafford will be cut altogether.”
Ms Haigh spoke in the House of Commons after Conservative MP Iain Steward, Chair of the Transport Select Committee, put a pressing question on the revised timeline and budget for the completion of HS2.
Huw Merriman, Minister for Railways and HS2, said the government had a responsibility to review its entire portfolio if “public spending pressures” affected borrowing.
Figures from the rail and industry sectors told the BBC last week that delaying construction of the network would still increase costs and jeopardize future investment in the country.
GB Railfreight chief executive John Smith warned of the move, calling it “immature” and expressed concerns the Crewe leg would be canceled altogether.
Sir John Armitt, chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission, said the delay would only drive up costs in the long run.
“Any time you delay a construction project, you inevitably increase its cost because it’s not being stopped, it’s just going on for an extended period of time,” he said.
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