Labour MP Mike Reader has hit back at former Conservative roads minister Richard Holden over his criticism of Labour’s decision to abandon the controversial A303 Stonehenge scheme, accusing him of misunderstanding how major infrastructure projects are delivered.
Holden said on X that he had been part of the Conservative government that “gave the go-ahead” to the A303 Stonehenge project and attacked Labour over its cancellation.
But Reader challenged that account, saying:
“The project never actually got the go ahead.”
He added:
“Another former minister who has no actual idea how infrastructure delivery works… No wonder the Tories built nothing!”
The history of the scheme is more complicated than Holden’s post suggests. Development consent for the A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down project was initially granted by then Transport Secretary Grant Shapps in November 2020, but that decision was subsequently quashed by the High Court in 2021.
A fresh Development Consent Order was granted in July 2023, allowing the scheme to proceed through the planning system.
However, the project did not proceed to construction and its consent was later formally revoked, with the Department for Transport confirming that the A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down Development Consent Order had been withdrawn.
The long-running project proposed upgrading the A303 close to Stonehenge, including construction of a tunnel through part of the World Heritage Site.
Supporters argued it would tackle congestion and improve connections between the South East and South West, while opponents raised concerns about cost and the potential impact on one of Britain’s most important archaeological landscapes.
The scheme had also faced repeated legal and planning challenges. The original examining authority recommended against granting consent, citing significant adverse effects on the Stonehenge World Heritage Site, before ministers nevertheless approved the project.
Reader’s intervention therefore centres on the distinction between receiving planning consent and a project actually reaching the stage of funded construction and delivery.
His criticism also reflects Labour’s wider argument that the previous Conservative government announced major infrastructure projects without always securing the funding, permissions and delivery arrangements required to actually build them.
For Reader, the row over Stonehenge illustrates a broader point: major infrastructure should be judged by whether projects are genuinely deliverable, rather than by ministerial announcements alone.
