‘Betrayal of the north’: Furious leaders demand free Commons vote as Johnson slashes rail plans

More than 20 million Britons will miss out on promised rail improvements after ministers revealed in full their plans to dump or downgrade key projects, including two new rail lines across the north.

The government was accused of a “betrayal” as it broke a manifesto pledge to build the HS3 line, between Manchester and Leeds, and the eastern leg of HS2, serving the Midlands and Yorkshire.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said the cuts would leave the north of England behind “for the next 100 years”.

Boris Johnson said his critics were talking “total rubbish” and that there was some good news, referring to the revival of plans to electrify the Transpennine route and Midland main line.

The long-awaited integrated rail review will scrap the upgrade of the Leamside line, affecting 1.1 million people across Tyne and Wear; cancel a high-speed line to Leeds and a new through station, affecting 4.2 million people in Manchester and Merseyside; and cut the eastern leg of HS2, meaning that 14.2 million people in London, Sheffield and the east Midlands will miss out on a high-speed link.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said the policy showed that the government’s “levelling up” promises were “just a slogan”.

“If you can’t level up in Bradford then the whole levelling-up agenda is seen for what it really is,” he said. “The north of England has been betrayed.”

Northern leaders demanded the review be put to a free vote in parliament – urging Tory MPs to “do some soul-searching” and vote against it.

Jamie Driscoll, the North of Tyne mayor, added: “It really is the case that the government’s misjudged this, and misjudged the strength of feeling. Everybody in the north is getting a bargain-basement solution. It just doesn’t cut it.”

Under the plans, which were only finalised early on Thursday, the government says it will build a new line between Warrington and just east of Manchester.

The routes into Liverpool and across the Pennines to Leeds will be done on upgraded existing lines – which transport officials dubbed the “minimum viable” project.

The approach taken by the government will release less capacity for additional services, and there will be no stop at Bradford – a key element of the original design. Proposals to reopen the Leamside line and boost capacity heading into the northeast of England were also shelved.

On HS2, the eastern leg will be built from Birmingham to East Midlands Parkway, instead of continuing on to Leeds. As a result, capacity will not be released on the east coast main line or Midland main line. Nottingham and Derby city centres will gain direct HS2 services to London.

The government also says it will investigate proposals for a “rapid transit” system for Leeds. HS2 will go ahead to Manchester, as previously planned, although a link at Golborne to the west coast main line, required for services to Scotland, is still under review. Parts of the Midlands fared better under the review, with a green light for the Midland Hub rail programme pushed for by local leaders.

In total, areas representing 21.8 million people will get less than they were hoping for from the plan – more if those affected by the lack of capacity increase on the east coast main line are included.

Speaking at their press conference, the northern mayors pushed for a vote in parliament on the proposals – particularly whether to add a through station via Bradford.

Mr Burnham said his city had done better out of the plan than other parts of the north, but that he was standing “with my fellow northern mayors today because we are one north”.

Mr Burnham continued: “We are calling today for a free vote in parliament on these plans before they go any further.

“We’ve been given a second-class plan here. And that’s been the story of our lives. 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.”

Dan Jarvis, the mayor of South Yorkshire combined authority, said he did not think the government had the numbers to carry a vote on the policy.

“My reckoning of the numbers is that there wouldn’t be a parliamentary majority for the proposals that the government have brought forward,” he said.

“So I don’t think that we should consider this as the end of the matter, and I would anticipate that the opposition and others will look to find a way to have that vote and for MPs to have that opportunity to have their say.”

He said that many MPs, including Conservatives, were “deeply unhappy with these proposals”, believing that “the north had been sold well short”.

But Boris Johnson said it was “total rubbish” to suggest that he was breaking his promises.

“Of course, there are going to be people who, you know, always want everything at once. And there are lots of people who’ll say, ‘Look, what we should do is carve huge new railways through virgin territory, smashing through unspoilt countryside and villages, and do it all at once’,” he said.

“The problem with that is those extra high-speed lines take decades, and they don’t deliver the commuter benefits that I’m talking about. We will eventually do them.”