Osborne calls for May to back 'northern powerhouse' rail plans

Theresa May must commit to George Osborne’s pet project aimed at bolstering northern England to avoid the UK becoming a “one-trick pony”, the former chancellor has said.

Osborne, who became the editor of the London Evening Standard after being sacked by May when she took office, called on the prime minister to back the “northern powerhouse” and build high-speed rail links across northern England. Failure to do so would risk allowing the capital to continue to grow faster than the rest of the country, he said.

Osborne, who is chairman of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said the Tories needed to show they cared about the whole country.

London was a “fantastic city, but [the UK] can’t just be a one-trick pony as a country, and cities like Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Hull, they need to be allowed to grow and become stronger,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“In the end, the transport links between them are absolutely central and building these high-speed lines would enable people to commute, and enable businesses to attract more talent and bring investment to the north.”

Writing in Tuesday’s edition of the Financial Times, Osborne backed a project to link Liverpool and Hull with a high-speed rail link.

“Far be it from me to offer advice to the prime minister on how to relaunch her premiership this autumn, but making this big commitment to the north at the Conservative conference in Manchester would not be a bad place to start,” he wrote.

Osborne, who has become a high-profile critic of May’s government from his position as editor of the Standard, said the HS3 project must be included in the next stage of the government’s high-speed network.

May has said she remains committed to delivering the HS2 north-south railway, but she has been cautious about supporting HS3.

She told the Yorkshire Post in April: “The issue is there are a number of options that are being looked at in relation to HS3 or northern powerhouse rail. But what I would say is those big projects are not the only way in which we are looking to invest in transport in the region.”

Osborne said he wanted the northern powerhouse project to extend beyond his own political career and insisted it had support within May’s cabinet.

If May was serious about taking on his project, the Conservatives “need to commit this autumn to the high-speed rail links between the northern cities that will make the whole bigger than the parts”.

Under phase one of HS2, due to open in December 2026, trains will travel at high speed between London and Birmingham before continuing on from Birmingham on the existing west coast mainline.

A second Y-shaped phase will open in two stages. The first portion of phase two – from the West Midlands to Crewe – will launch in 2027; the second – from Crewe to Manchester and from the West Midlands to Leeds, South Yorkshire and the East Midlands – will open in 2033.

Last month 29,000 people signed a petition calling for more transport cash for the north of England after rail electrification plans were scrapped. Analysis by the thinktank IPPR North suggests the region has received £282 per person in infrastructure spending over the last decade, compared with £680 per person in the capital.