Mayors from across the North have written to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak urging whoever ends up as Prime Minister to meet them and re-think the Government's cut-price rail plan for the region.
In a letter seen by The Northern Agenda politics newsletter, the five Labour mayors raised their concerns about the controversial Integrated Rail Plan and called on the winning candidate to meet with them to "agree a better way forward for the North".
The call from Greater Manchester's Andy Burnham, Liverpool City Region's Steve Rotheram, North of Tyne's Jamie Driscoll, West Yorkshire's Tracy Brabin and South Yorkshire's Oliver Coppard comes ahead of the two senior Tories' face-to-face debate in Leeds tomorrow (July 28).
After it was unveiled in November, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he £96 billion IRP would slash journey times across the North with 110 miles of new high-speed line, with benefits coming quicker than in the original plans put forward by Transport for the North. For the latest politics news from across the North subscribe to the Northern Agenda newsletter But it was dubbed 'the great train robbery' by Labour after breaking promises made by Boris Johnson to build a full new high speed line between Leeds and Manchester and to build the eastern leg of HS2 in full all the way to Leeds.