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, North Somerset’s first ever Labour MP Sadik Al-Hassan, who was elected earlier this month, said at the weekend he was “distressed” to hear the Portishead project was at risk.Writing to the treasury and transport secretary, he said improving transport in his constituency was "immensely important" to him.

The Tory shadow chancellor Jeremy Hunt said Labour’s claims of a £22bn black hole were “spurious.”The Portishead link’s price tag of £152m had been partly funded by the Department for Transport (DfT), which paid upfront costs of around £45m as part of the Restoring Your Railway fund.This was accompanied by additional funding from the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) and North Somerset Council.

However, it would be down to the DfT to cover any unexpected extra costs going forward, including operational and mobilisation costs, and any financial liabilities relating to the operation of the train service.No timeframe has yet been set out for the review which will decide which projects can go ahead.

Additional train services will be introduced across the West Midlands.

West Midlands Railway said"We are sorry that we have lost 2% of our branch chairs, some of whom failed vetting. But we're the only major party that does this sort of vetting."

One of the chairs was Maria Bowtell, a councillor on East Riding of Yorkshire Council who gave a speech at Reform UK's party conference last year.In her resignation letter, she said she felt "abandoned" in her role, described the party's candidate selection as "chaotic", and accused the leadership of lacking integrity.

Other members have quit on free-speech grounds, including Howard Cox, who stood as a Reform UK candidate in the general election and the London mayoral poll.He said he left the party after he was threatened with expulsion for criticising the treatment of Tommy Robinson, a prominent far-right activist.