Knives out after £150m cutbacks

URGENT talks are being sought with Ministers over the axing of more than £150m of projects in Yorkshire as the Government faced claims that its cuts "fly against" coalition promises.

Sheffield Chamber of Commerce said the decision to cut projects worth more than 100m in the city – including an 80m loan to steelmaker Forgemasters, which could have led to hundreds of jobs – amounted to a "Black Thursday".

It branded the cuts "frustrating" and claimed they flew in the face of promises by the Government to boost manufacturing, while Sheffield's Master Cutler James Newman said the announcement was "particularly disappointing" given recent speeches by Prime Minister David Cameron and Business Secretary Vince Cable.

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Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband, who is opening a petition with Sheffield Central MP Paul Blomfield in a bid to have the Forgemasters cut reversed, branded the decision "economic lunacy" and "total short-termism".

Greg Mulholland, Liberal Democrat MP for Leeds North West, has also urged Chief Secretary to the Treasury and fellow Lib Dem Danny Alexander to rethink the suspension of a 50m grant for a "wellbeing centre" insisting the funding be restored "at the earliest opportunity".

The fallout from Thursday's cancellation of 2bn of projects and suspension of another 8.5bn gathered pace yesterday, as Ministers insisted they were forced to make the cuts because Labour pre-election pledges were unaffordable.

Leaders in Sheffield feel particularly badly hit having seen the Forgemasters loan axed along with 13m for an industrial park on the Outukumpu site in the city. A 12m grant for the city centre Retail Quarter regeneration project was also suspended.

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Chamber chief executive Nigel Tomlinson said: "We are requesting urgent discussions with the Government and shall be liaising with local MPs to fully discover the extent of these cuts. We want to ensure that at this critical time Sheffield's voice is being heard."

He said the "most frustrating part of these cuts" was that they "fly against" the long-term aim of rebalancing Sheffield's economy away from the public sector and towards a stronger private sector with an export-led manufacturing base.

The Master Cutler said an export opportunity had been "stifled before it can begin", adding: "The news is particularly disappointing in light of the Government's stated commitment to manufacturing and exports."

Mr Miliband, MP for Doncaster North, spoke to unions and managers yesterday and claimed the Lib Dem "prejudice" against nuclear was a factor in the Forgemasters decision, something denied by Ministers.

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Other Labour politicians have singled out Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg – a Sheffield MP – for strong criticism over the cuts, particularly given his warning to the Yorkshire Post earlier this year that there risked being Greek-style riots if a Government simply "slashed" spending without enough care in areas such as South Yorkshire.

But today the Sheffield Hallam MP blames Labour for having promised Forgemasters loan which could never be afforded, and said the Government would do "everything we can" to help the company secure private finance to expand.

"You may think that it would have been easy for me, a Sheffield MP, to use the power of my office to force my colleagues in Government to make sure that while the rest of the country suffered, my constituents were treated differently," he said. "That would have been an abuse of power. It's the stuff of shady deals in smoke-filled rooms."

Meanwhile Mr Mulholland is urging a rethink over the suspension of 50m pledged for the Holt Park centre in Leeds.

Nick Clegg on cuts: Page 15.