Jump directly to the content
OFF THE RAILS

Labour stay silent on which crucial road upgrades would be axed to fund Jeremy Corbyn’s pledge to slash rail fares

LABOUR frontbenchers yesterday repeatedly refused to tell voters which crucial road projects they would axe to pay for Jeremy Corbyn’s multi-billion pound pledge to slash rail fares, in a series of car-crash interviews.

Mr Corbyn vowed to use money raised from road tax currently reserved for a £29billion upgrade of Britain’s creaking road network to cut train tickets by a third.

Shadow Transport Secretary was unable to say which road investment projects Labour would sacrifice
3
Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald was unable to say which road investment projects Labour would sacrificeCredit: PA:Press Association/PA Images

But Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald was unable to say which of the road investment projects would be sacrificed.

And he refused to rule out scrapping improvements to the A303 A30 A358 roads in the South-West, upgrades to the A1 North, and the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon.

Repeatedly grilled about which projects would not go ahead, Mr McDonald finally said: “I am wanting to look at those plans because I'm aware that some of the preparations and planning for those have not been a perfect and I want to take an assessment of exactly where we're up to.”

Meanwhile Mr Corbyn refused to say why the huge train ticket pledge wasn’t in the Labour manifesto unveiled last month.

Grilled about his latest surprise policy, he simply said: “It is there now.”

It comes after the first of the crippling 27 day Christmas strike by the militant RMT union, who bankrolled Mr Corbyn’s campaign to be elected Labour leader in 2015.

Tory Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Corbyn’s Labour would bring Britain grinding to a halt.”

Jeremy Corbyn vowed to use road tax money reserved for upgrading Britain's roads to cut train tickets by a third
3
Jeremy Corbyn vowed to use road tax money reserved for upgrading Britain's roads to cut train tickets by a thirdCredit: Getty Images - Getty
Tory Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said Labour would bring Britain to a grinding halt
3
Tory Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said Labour 'would bring Britain grinding  to a halt'Credit: Getty Images - Getty

The Sun says

IS there no limit to Labour’s bribes to ­middle-class voters at the expense of the poor? If it wasn’t illegal they’d just hand out cash on suburban doorsteps.

The latest ruse is arguably their most idiotic yet. Four in ten of us don’t use a train from one year to the next. Only five per cent do so more than once a week.

Vastly more people, especially outside the capital, rely on the roads.

But Corbyn would cut a third off rail fares by stripping money from road upgrades: A £1,000 bung for well-heeled London commuters, taken from the low-earners his party once championed. It’s “for the few, from the many”.

Perhaps Corbyn hopes to distract us. Because we can now see exactly what the trains would be like under Labour.

Just look at the sickening month-long South Western Railway strike now unleashed by his RMT union buddies.

And imagine them paralysing an entire renationalised network.

Unearthed footage shows Jeremy Corbyn saying he wished Nato and Western military alliances 'didn’t exist'


  • GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL [email protected]

 

Topics