PM treating northerners as 'mugs' as he boasts about cash from axed HS2
Rishi Sunak has been accused of treating northerners as “mugs” as he boasts about reallocating cash from the axed HS2 scheme.
The PM will today say local leaders in the North and Midlands will receive £4.7billion to improve roads and public transport. At a special Cabinet meeting in Yorkshire and the Humber, the PM and Transport Secretary Mark Harper will unveil the Local Transport Fund.
The seven-year fund will allow local leaders to invest in new roads, filling potholes, and refurbishing bus stations. But it will not be available until April 2025 - after the next general election.
Last year Mr Sunak scrapped the Tory commitment to build a northern leg of HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester. Under a rebranded “Network North” package, the PM pledged to reinvest £36billion in other transport projects in the North and Midlands.
But the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham posted on X: “Didn’t they promise this exactly 10 years ago? They must think we are thick." He also told the BBC ’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “Exactly 10 years ago - it was 2014 when George Osborne came to Manchester and said there would be a Northern Powerhouse - HS2 would be at the heart of it.
Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade
“Will anybody in the north of England look at this and not think they are taking us though we are mugs really?” Referring to previous Tory commitments, which included a plan to build a new Leeds-Manchester rail route, he added: “They can’t just keep promising us this stuff, it’s just not going to work."
Should HS2 have been scrapped? Vote in our poll HERE to have your say.
The Department for Transport said the PM is expected to call on ministers to “hold local authorities to account" to ensure the fund is "used appropriately”. Mr Sunak added: “Through reallocating HS2 funding, we’re not only investing billions of pounds back into our smaller cities, towns and rural areas across the North and Midlands, but we are also empowering their local leaders to invest in the transport projects that matter most in their communities - this is levelling up in action."
But Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said: “The Tories have failed and local people are sick and tired of this Government taking them for fools. “Only the Conservatives could have the brass neck to promise yet another ‘transformation’ of transport infrastructure in the Midlands and North after fourteen years of countless broken promises to do just that. The Conservative record speaks for itself – record delays and cancellations on the rail network, 22 million more potholes, and a record-breaking collapse in bus routes.
The Chief Executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership Henri Murison said: “Ten years on from the promise of a Northern Powerhouse, Northern Powerhouse Rail needs to be the number one priority now that HS2 has been cancelled.
Councils around the North of England will always be able to spend vital capital for projects, but as government cut capital investment by a third for next 5 years in the last Budget to pay for the National Insurance cut, and the parts of HS2 cancelled hadn’t started to be built yet, there is actually no more capital to spend anytime soon. Unless they delay again the long promised new hospitals or school rebuilding projects the government is making promises based on sums which don’t add up.”
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
