Conservatives ‘send signal’ by appointing Yorkshire MP as first ever shadow minister for transport in North
The Conservatives have appointed a shadow minister for transport in the North “to send a signal of how important it is”.
Shadow Transport Secretary Helen Whateley announced that she had appointed Sir Alec Shelbrooke, the MP for Wetherby and Easingwold in West Yorkshire, to the brief.
It is the first time there has been a shadow transport minister for the north, and Labour does not have a government frontbencher in this role.
Ms Whately told the Transport for the North fringe at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham: “When I think about the future of the whole of the UK, the economy of the North of England, and the transport that underpins that, is unbelievably important.
“That’s reflected in my appointments in my shadow team … there is a shadow minister who represents a northern constituency who is broadly focused on transport in the North.
“I hope that sends a signal to you on how important I think that is at joining up the transport in the North.”
Ms Whately said Sir Alec would be focused on ensuring the current government upheld Network North, the £36 billion transport plan announced by Rishi Sunak after he scrapped the northern leg of HS2.
He will be “making sure that even under the pressures on finances the government has talked a lot about, that we do still see the substantial investment in infrastructure that was envisaged”, the Shadow Transport Secretary explained.
Network North included some projects in Plymouth and Bristol, but also contained funding for Northern Powerhouse Rail, which is seen by many experts as the key to revitalising the region.
It would create a high-speed line from Liverpool to Hull, which would also connect up Leeds and Sheffield and build a new station in central Bradford.
The new Labour Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has said she is reviewing all transport infrastructure projects ahead of the spending review next year.
But she toldthe Yorkshire Postpreviously that readers should be assured that connecting up the North “will be a priority” in her infrastructure review.
Ms Whately said that her focus would be on “linking up the North’s big cities”.
She added that it can be “extraordinarily hard to get from one Northern city to another”, but linking them up would boost productivity.
Speaking at a fringe event at the conference in Birmingham on Monday, he said the “North has to take a bit more control of its own thinking and be more imaginative about some of these solutions”.
He was responding to a question from Clare Hayward, chair of the Convention of the North, who asked what would come next after the cancellation of HS2 and the delays to Northern Powerhouse Rail.
Lord Moylan said “railway investment works where you have an awful lot of people concentrated in one place”, citing London.
The Tory transport spokesperson continued: “That gives you lots and lots of passengers, which justifies the system and makes it work.
“There needs to be a better argument about the North, because there’s just that question of critical mass which the North is constantly going to run into and needs to be addressed.”
He added that there has to be “more imaginative thinking”, instead of “how government is going to do this for us”.
In a tweet, the peer claimed his words were taken out of context, accusing this newspaper of “biased framing”.