A North East MP has accused Labour of a “shameless attempt to buy votes” in pledging to reopen a mothballed railway line.
Paul Howell, the Conservative MP for Sedgefield, claimed he was “astonished” by Labour spending promises as discord broke out over the region’s long-held ambitions to revitalise the Leamside Line. It comes after shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh confirmed during a speech in Newcastle that Labour would revive the disused route, which runs between Gateshead and County Durham, if it was in Government – something a party spokesman confirmed was simply a “reiteration” of an existing Labour policy commitment to build the vast Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) project in its entirety.
Speaking at the Transport for the North annual conference on Monday, Ms Haigh pledged to deliver both NPR and HS2 – saying that the “unacceptable” state of the North’s transport infrastructure had made the region “less than the sum of its parts”. Restoring trains to the Leamside Line has been a key aim of the North East’s leaders for years and the campaign has been promoted by Labour and Tory MPs alike, including Mr Howell.
