Prime Minister and Chancellor visit Morley & Outwood.
The Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne visited a local business today. Firstly they both had a tour of the Coke Cola factory and then accompanied by Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Andrea Jenkyns they met with three local apprentices who have undertaken a programme with Coke Cola.
The Prime Minister discussed the importance of investment in the northern hub and also the benefits of having elected mayors for cities such as Leeds, whilst the Chancellor discussed the possibility of a HS3’ line between Manchester and Leeds and also the benefits of joining our northern cities together –by providing the modern transport connections they need; by backing their science and universities; by backing their creative clusters; and giving them the local power and control that a powerhouse economy needs.
George Osborne commented; ‘I’m the first Chancellor to represent a seat in the north of England for over 35 years. Which part of England is construction strongest? Yorkshire and Humberside. We need a Northern Powerhouse; not one city, but a collection of northern cities - sufficiently close to each other that combined they can take on the world. Able to provide jobs and opportunities and security to the many, many people who live here, and for whom this is all about.
I am trying to remedy a historic northern-southern imbalance; now I’m trying to fix this with a series of massive investments in the transport infrastructure in the north. I’ve committed £600 million to the Northern Hub, which will cut journey times on trains between Manchester, Leeds, Bradford and Sheffield’.
Andrea Jenkyns said; ‘I am pleased that the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have today visited our constituency of Morley & Outwood; personally speaking to them both, I am confident that they are seriously committed to investment in the north, they understand that Yorkshire and Humber are important for our countries economy. Investment is clearly long overdue and has been neglected by consecutive governments for decades so I welcome today’s news.
I would also like to encourage politicians of all political persuasion to get behind Yorkshire’s bid to have Britain’s first rail college at Doncaster which will teach 3000 students per year. They also aim to address the imbalance of only 7% of engineers in rail industry are female. This was also highlighted today by one of the apprentices we met; one particular young British lady was chosen from hundreds of European applicants to join the apprenticeship scheme and explained that today is National Women in Engineering Day and how we need to encourage more women into engineering’.