Cheryl Gillan: "PM wanted a Welsh MP as Welsh Secretary"

The Government should scrap its planned HS2 rail link from London to Birmingham and invest more in infrastructure like the Cardiff and Valley Lines, says former Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan.

Speaking to Dermot Murnaghan on Sky News, she said: "Now the time has passed to hand (the post of Welsh Secretary) to someone else and that allows me to go back to my roots, if you like, and actually speak out about something that is affecting my constituency and that is this terrible HS2 project.

She said Prime Minister David Cameron had made no secret of the fact he wanted an MP who represented a seat in Wales in the post of Welsh Secretary. Mrs Gillan said she had a "very exciting front bench career" and insisted there was a place for women at the cabinet table.

She praised her successor David Jones as "very able", stating that it would ensure "continuity" in the Wales Office.