MP calls for more Yorkshire travel investment
BBCTransport in London will get 10 times more money per person over the next few years than transport in the Yorkshire region, an MP has said.
Hull North Labour MP Diana Johnson made the comments during a Commons debate on transport investment.
She said Yorkshire had the lowest level of transport investment in the UK.
Transport Minister Jesse Norman said the government was committed to the North and was "spending £13bn on improving northern transport."
Ms Johnson quoted figures that showed the Yorkshire and the Humber region would get £190 per head in future investment compared with £1,943 per person in London.
She described the funding difference between the North and the capital as "stark, and widening."
"Transport for the North, with new statutory powers, is to get £60m to develop transport plans for the whole of the North of England," she said.
"This sounds impressive until you note that as long ago as 2008 Transport for London was spending £50m just on advertising."
Ms Johnson said it took longer to travel from Liverpool to Hull than London to Paris, and the North would have received an extra £59bn over the past decade if spending had matched London's.
'Energetic giant'
In response, Mr Norman said growth in the North had been inhibited by poor transport.
But he said the region was "not a sleeping giant - it's a lively, active and energetic giant".
He told MPs that building HS2 was the "perhaps the clearest statement I can make of this government's commitment to the North".
Rounding up the debate, Ms Johnson said: "I think it's typical of a southern transport minister to think the problems of the North can be dealt with by HS2."
PA