‘Second-class’ rail plan could hurt north of England for 100 years, says Andy Burnham – as it happened

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Boris Johnson is facing anger from both sides of the Commons today over the government’s new rail plan and local mayors and council leaders have been stinging in their criticism.

Not so long ago, the Tories were briefing that Boris Johnson was going to be their “delivery man” - the PM who was going to get done the things he promised (Brexit, jabs in arms).

My colleague Jessica Elgot has looked at whether since then the wheels have been coming off the delivery van?

• No 10 has said its downgraded rail plan will bring faster connections a decade earlier, amid fury in northern England and the Midlands over the scrapping of both the eastern leg of the high-speed HS2 and a promised new fast line from Manchester to Leeds. The scaled-back plan has been strongly criticised by Labour mayors and council leaders in the north of England. Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, said that this was yet another example of the north being treated as “second best” and that these plans could hold it back for another 100 or 200 years. (See 4.41pm.) He and 29 other northern mayors and council leaders challenged Boris Johnson to allow MPs a free vote on the plans, so that northern Tories who feel their constituents are being betrayed can express their views. But there was relatively little sign of the anticipated “red wall” backlash from these MPs - at least in public. Only a relatively small number of Tories spoke out in the Commons chamber as the plans were announced, and one of the strongest pieces of ‘blue-on-blue’ criticism came from Huw Merriman, who represents Bexhill and Battle in east Sussex. In a reference to Boris Johnson’s excessive boosterism, Merriman, chair of the Commons transport committee, said the fact that the plans did not live up to earlier promises showed “the danger in selling perpetual sunlight”. (See 11.30am.) Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said the announcement showed Johnson had failed “the first test of levelling up”. (See 1.10pm.) Here is my colleague Gwyn Topham’s account of what is in the plans, and how it compares with to what was promised.

• Sir Andrew Dilnot, the key architect of the government’s social care reform, has said most older people needing care will lose out from plans to dilute protections against crippling costs in England, implying an impact on at least 300,000 people.

• Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, has insisted she does not use her financial power over the BBC to put pressure on the broadcaster’s news coverage, after writing a critical tweet aimed at the corporation’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg.

• Albania has strenuously denied it is willing to process people crossing the Channel to Britain, after the UK deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, confirmed that the government is exploring ways of processing asylum seekers abroad.

• No 10’s plan for tackling MPs’ second jobs has been dismissed as “for the birds” and “not very well thought through” by Chris Bryant, the Commons standards committee chair.

• Nicola Sturgeon has been urged to take a tougher stance on phasing out oil and gas by signing up to a new global alliance that calls for an end date for oil drilling.

• Britain’s biggest poultry producer is set to hire up to 900 temporary staff from overseas, under an emergency visa scheme introduced by ministers after concerns about a squeeze on labour leading to turkey shortages at Christmas.

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Here is an analysis of the integrated rail plan by my colleague Helen Pidd, the Guardian’s north of England editor.

And here is an extract explaining why Bradford, where Keir Starmer was visiting today (see 5.30pm), may feel particularly let down.

And what about poor old Bradford, a city of missed opportunity? The fifth largest metropolitan authority in England, it has a growing population of 542,100. A total of 26.3% of the population are aged under 18, compared with 21.4% nationally, making it the youngest city in the UK. Yet no trains run through Bradford. They all stop and turn around again, at one of the two tiny stations.

It is a cul-de-sac of more than half a million people. Currently, the 10-mile journey from Bradford to Leeds takes 20 minutes on the fastest service. But you can travel 38 miles to London from Reading (population: 220,000) in 24 minutes.

Here is part of the opening statement at the northern mayors’ press conference earlier from Tracy Brabin, the Labour mayor for West Yorkshire. It is also the start of a thread with extracts from the other opening statements.

As my colleague Helen Pidd reports, 30 mayors and council leaders from the north, including one Conservative, have put their name to a joint letter saying that the rail plan is inadequate, that it could hold back the north, and that MPs should be given a free vote on it.

Earlier today Boris Johnson said (slightly misleadingly) that he always declared everything in the register “in the normal way”. (See 12.55pm.) But, as Insider’s Henry Dyer points out, he has recently made a new declaration - the use of a suite at Heathrow airport, for three people, worth £1,800, before his recently holiday in Spain. Heathrow airport gave him the freebie.

In his opening statement at the news conference Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, condemned the rail plan as a “second best” option. He said:

It is a second-class option, a Championship option when we needed a Premier League option, because you cannot level up the North of England on second best and I’m afraid this is distinctly second best. The truth of the matter is the north of England is fed up with second best.

But in response to a question during the Q&A, he elaborated on this idea in a riff that - almost brilliantly - linked today’s announcement to much deeper and more historic grievances and injustices, presented it as a once-in-a-century turning point (going wrong), and redefined levelling up, against the PM. This is why they call Burnham the king of the north.

Here is the key passage.

We’ve been given a second class plan here. And that’s been the story of our lives. We’ve always had put up with second best as northern people, ourselves and our residents.

And I guess what we’re saying is we’re not having it. Because we were told that we were going to be levelled up, and we were told it was going to be different. And different to me means coming to the front of the queue, and not always being told that the money’s run out and has been spent somewhere else. But that, I’m afraid, is implicit in what’s been announced today.

And this is not politics. This is about the future of the north of England for the next 100 or 200 years. That is the significance of the decisions that are being announced today. And we are not prepared to consign our grandchildren, great grandchildren and beyond to being second class citizens still when it comes to transport in this country.

We have got to fight for better for them and we have to do it together. We have to stand together as one north. If Bradford loses, Leeds loses out, Liverpool loses out and then we lose out as well.

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Burnham says all parts of the north needs better connectivity. He wants better connectivity on Tyneside, so that people living in Manchester can get to Newcastle more quickly to watch United hammer Newcastle.

He says people in the north are used to being treated “second best”. He says they were told levelling up would change that, and that for once they would be at the front of the queue. But it hasn’t happenend

He says people in the north don’t want to see their grandchildren consigned to being second best citizens too.

Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, said Manchester benefits more than the other areas represented at this press conference.

He said there were significant benefits in the plan for Greater Manchester.

But he said he wanted the whole of the north to flourish, and he said overall these were “second class” proposals.

He said for just £4bn more the government could have built the entire new line from Manchester to Leeds via Bradford.

And he said Greater Manchester was the only part of the country being asked to contribute to the cost of HS2.

He said he and his fellow Labour mayors were calling for a free vote in parliament on these plans.

He said there were Tory MPs elected in 2019 people people “loaned” the party their vote, and they should have a chance to say whether this plan is good enough for their constituents.

Jamie Driscoll, the Labour mayor of the North of Tyne, said there were only two rail tracks open into the north-east. The priority should have been to re-open an old route. But that did not happen, he said.

He said the argument that this plan would bring benefits sooner was like promising someone a three-course meal, and then giving them a quick bag of crisps instead.

Steve Rotheram, the Labour mayor of Liverpool city region, says today’s plans could have been produced by Gladstone. They do not look to the future, he says.

He says the plans could have been transformation. People were promised Grand Designs, but they got a 60-minute Makeover.

He says, if the north had received the same per capita funding as London, the investment would have been worth £86bn more. He says he is not having a go at London. Londoners deserve decent infrastructure, he says. But he says the north needs proper infrastructure too.

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Metro mayors from the north are holding a press conference now giving their response to the integrated rail plan. There is a live feed here.

Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, told peers earlier that Brussels should not interpret his “reasonable tone” in talks on the Northern Ireland protocol with a softening of the UK’s position.

There has been some comment recently on the apparent softening of the UK’s tone. Last week Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission vice president who represents the EU in Brexit talks with the UK, said the change in tone from Lord Frost had been welcome. EU member states have also noticed a shift, although at least one, Ireland, has questioned whether it is sincere.

During questions in the Lords, asked if he was softening his negotiating stance, Frost replied:

No. We are trying to reach agreement. That has always been our position. I would suggest our friends in the EU don’t interpret the reasonable tone that I usually use in my discussions with them as implying any softening in the substantive position.

Jenny Chapman, his Labour shadow, asked Frost to give his “percentage assessment of success” by Christmas. Frost said:

I think it’s somewhere between zero and a hundred to be honest. I don’t think it helps to put specific numbers on these sort of things.

At the Downing Street lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman would not comment on a report in the Times (paywall) saying the government was seeking to fly migrants crossing the Channel to Albania for their asylum claims to be processed there. Tom Newton Dunn in the Times says:

Under the plan, arrivals on Britain’s beaches in small boats would be taken to the country within seven days for off-shore processing.

The prospect of a long wait there while claims for asylum in Britain were evaluated will act as a deterrent against making the crossing, it is thought.

The spokesman said he would not comment about speculation about talks with specific countries. But he said that the government was looking at “all options” to stop these crossings and that it was engaged in talks “with both France and other international partners to help reduce illegal migration”.

Olta Xhaçka, the Albanian Europe minister, dismissed the report as “fake news”.

The Labour MP Zarah Sultana refused to withdraw the word “dodgy” three times in the Commons earlier, as she claimed she did not think “another word suffices the level of corruption and what we have seen from the government”, PA Media reports. PA says:

During business questions in the Commons, Sultana, accused transport secretary Grant Shapps and Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg of being “dodgy”.

Sultana said: “It has been reported that the transport secretary used public money to create a departmental team that lobbied against plans to build on airfield sites, including a giga-factory at Coventry airport. Disgracefully, that would mean he used public funds to lobby against green investment and jobs coming to Coventry.

“And why? We know he is an aviation enthusiast. From a dodgy transport secretary to a dodgy leader of the house who last week tried to rewrite the rules to let his mate off the hook. This Conservative government is rotten to the core. Is the leader of the house proud of this shameful record?”

Interjecting, Commons deputy speaker Dame Eleanor Laing told her to think of a different form of words, as she did not like the word “dodgy”.

She said: “She can make clear she disagrees with what has happened. Perhaps she could put it in different words.”

Sultana said she could not think of another word that implied the same level of corruption.

Laing insisted that while “it is absolutely in order to have disagreement here”, we must “moderate our language and be careful of the adjectives that are used about a member by another”.

Sultana again said she could not think of a suitable alternative, but after a further exchange she eventually withdrew her remarks.

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