Doncaster will not forgive or forget if Conservative government allows South Yorkshire's airport to die

Had Ministers, planners and investors seen the potential that those charged with running the airport saw, this litte corner of Yorkshire could have been turned into connectivity hub to rival the biggest and busiest in the world.

It isn’t hyperbole. It’s fact. Should the promised HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail infrastructure been strategically intertwined with DSA –nestled between two of the country’s key arterial road routes and with access to Liverpool and Hull docks – then this region was going places.

In the backyard of Bawtry, there is no reason to suggest it could not have been a passenger exchange to rival Manchester and a freight hub like no other.

Instead, owing to a toxic combination of political complacency – at least one Tory Prime Minister stood at the dispatch box and promised to protect South Yorkshire’s airport at all costs – and capitalist greed has, for now, put a stop to one of the most exciting venutres in the UK.

But we must not stop red-flagging this missed opportunity. Anyone who understands how businesses work will care deeply about the removal of what could have been – and ought to be – a keystone in the levelling up agenda for the UK.

Should this government idly watch on as one of the country’s most promising economic prospects be shunted into a hangar to be covered in dust then forgiveness in this region will be hard to come by, especially at the ballot box.