An artist’s impression of the proposed HS2 station at Euston

Britain’s biggest construction companies have warned Boris Johnson that scrapping HS2 would cause “irreparable damage” to the sector and would jeopardise an “industrial renaissance” in the Midlands and northern England.

The chief executives of Balfour Beatty, Skanska, Morgan Sindall, Costain, Mace and Sir Robert McAlpine are among signatories of a letter to the prime minister seen by The Times urging him to approve construction of the full high-speed rail project.

HS2 is due to be a 250mph railway line that links London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. It is the biggest infrastructure project in Europe and is expected to create about 30,000 construction jobs and 2,000 apprenticeships. Critics have attacked its potential cost of up to £100 billion.

The business leaders argue that no alternative