Yorkshire MP Dan Jarvis: '˜Use Budget to replace our region's lost EU cash'

Barnsley Central MP Dan Jarvis has written to Mr Hammond calling on him to use his first Budget to honour promises made to the region by Leave campaigers during last year’s European Union referendum.

Yorkshire is set to lose funding to support the region’s ecoomyworth around £100m a year when Britain leaves the EU.

Senior Leave campaigners, including Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, promised regions which benefit from EU cash such as Yorkshire would not lose out financially if voters backed Brexit.

In his letter, Mr Jarvis described the EU money as “vital to the community I represent in Barnsley”.

He continued: “Despite the cast-iron guarantee made by some of your cabinet colleagues during the EU referendum, the future of this funding is uncertain.

“It is important that the future of regional economic funding is agreed well in advance of the point at which we leave the EU.

“The process through which that guarantee is delivered must empower regions like Yorkshire and the Humber to play a full role in determining how investment can best be delivered in the future.”

Mr Jarvis has called on Mr Hammond to launch a consultation on the replacement for EU funding in tomorrow’s Budget so the new mechanism is ready in time for Brexit.

Labour has committed to maintaning Yorkshire’s current EU funding, which has been previously invested in transport, university research, business support and improving skills, into the next decade.

Mr Hammond recently conceded that if the Brexit talks lead to Britain no longer taking part in the European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund “we will clearly have to make separate similar arrangements on a UK-only basis”.

The Government is likely to be handed better news on the economy from the Office for Budget Responsibility tomorrow with analysts forecasting borrowing to be lower and growth higher than expected.

But Mr Hammond has signalled he will not use the better outlook to loosen the public purse strings.

In an interview with The Yorkshire Post today, Deloitte chief economist Ian Stewart warns the Government is still only around midway through its programme for reducing the nation’s deficit.

He said: “The good news for the Chancellor is that the economy is growing much faster than anyone expected six months ago. The performance of the economy has been more solid since the referendum and actually growth accelerated into the end of last year.

“The big picture is still one of a very long-term programme to reduce the deficit.”