Labour is back to treating North as an afterthought

ONCE again the North gets the short end of the stick. After endless chatter about "levelling up", the recent Spring Statement delivered nothing for us, once again. Labour had a golden chance to prove they care about the North by investing in jobs, infrastructure and opportunities.

- By Sir Jake Berry

Instead, they reverted to type, showering attention on London and the South while leaving us in the North to fend for ourselves.

Remember when Boris turned the Red Wall blue in 2019?

It wasn't just about Brexit, his infectious optimism or even Corbyn and his Marxist cronies.

It was about smashing the Whitehall mindset that treats the North as an afterthought.

We dared to hope for a rebalanced economy, where opportunities aren't hoarded south of the Watford Gap.

But the Spring Statement and the previous nine months of Labour Government? It's a slap in the face.

Look where the cash is flowing.

The Lower Thames Crossing, the Oxford-Cambridge rail line, a third runway at Heathrow.

And the North? Our gamechanging project, the Northern leg of HS2, remains buried in the "too hard, too pricey" pile.

When Rishi Sunak axed HS2's northern stretch in Manchester, it was a gut punch. Labour had the chance to right that wrong but they gave it the knockout blow.

Instead of bold moves, we got a collective shrug.

Last week, in a bid to pacify growing unrest from the North and their own jittery backbenchers, Labour dusted off the TransPennine Line upgrade.