Yorkshire shouldn't have to pay for Government incompetence with Northern Powerhouse Rail cut - The Yorkshire Post says

The mere idea that Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) could be cut is a damning indictment of how fast and how far Liz Truss has fallen.

It was not long ago, July 28, that Ms Truss was promising the earth to the North. In a bid to outflank leadership rival Rishi Sunak, she said delivering NPR in full was “absolutely crucial for the future of the North of England” and that she had “committed to Northern Powerhouse Rail going ahead”.

Perhaps there’s an argument to say that those promises were never grounded in reality. After all, one of Liz Truss’s people had been briefing that if people think there’s an imaginary river, you build them an imaginary bridge.

However, the failure to invest in the region’s transport network is not imaginary and it has an impact on people’s lives. It is holding back Yorkshire’s economy.

Neither is the fact that the repeated promises have either fallen short or completely broken when it comes to transport infrastructure in the North.

Yorkshire is tired of these broken promises. And if the Tories are not careful, the region will deliver that message loud and clear at the ballot box, whenever the next General Election is held.

No matter how they try to rebadge their commitment to the North, this will be the final straw. Yorkshire has heard it all before - Northern Powerhouse, Levelling Up, Build Back Better. They all amount to just words if the Government isn’t willing to deliver action that would transform not only the North’s but also Britain’s economy.

As West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin says, rowing back on the promise to build NPR in full would be “another kick in the teeth for the North of England”. After all, it wasn’t long ago that the Leeds leg of HS2 was cancelled.