Brexiteers urged to deliver for Yorkshire on EU cash

Boris Johnson began work as Foreign Secretary yesterday

The appointment of Boris Johnson, the Vote Leave group’s de facto leader, to Mrs May’s first cabinet was yesterday followed by fellow campaign members Priti Patel and Chris Grayling.

All three signed a Vote Leave pledge during the EU referendum campaign promising areas which benefitted from European cash would not lose out in the event of a Brexit vote.

Yorkshire is due to receive £661m of so-called “structural funds” in the current EU funding round which stretches until 2020 to invest in measures to help grow the region’s economy.

At the height of the referendum campaign, Vote Leave moved to neutralise the issue of EU funding by promising areas which benefitted would not lose out.

The promise was signed by 13 Conservative Vote Leave supporters including Mr Johnson, Ms Patel and Mr Grayling.

Mr Johnson was made Foreign Secretary in one of Mrs May’s first acts as Prime Minister with Ms Patel and Mr Grayling becoming International Development Secretary and Transport Secretary respectively yesterday.

Barnsley Central MP Dan Jarvis said: “With leading Leave campaigners like Boris Johnson now at the very top of the new government it is essential that they deliver on their promises to the people of Yorkshire.

“There was a cast-iron promise during the campaign that EU funding would be maintained even if we left the EU – if that promise is broken it would be a huge breach of trust.”

The Vote Leave letter released during the referendum campaign said it was “important that people and organisations now receiving funding from the European Union know that their funding is safe”.

It argued that the financial savings from Britain withdrawing from the EU would mean there was “more than enough money to ensure that those who now get funding from the EU - including universities, scientists, family farmers, regional funds, cultural organisations and others - will continue to do so”.

Yorkshire MEP Linda McAvan said the region needed “urgent answers” over the funding.

She said: “Our region was due to receive £661m in regeneration funds, plus millions in agricultural and rural development subsidies and research funds for universities and business. Schools in the region are also set to receive 56m in loans from the European Investment Bank for urgent building repairs and development.

“Leave campaigners, now in senior government positions, promised there would be no funding losses. But we are already seeing universities losing out on research grants and we can’t plan regeneration projects without certainty.”