The election’s a chance for

I ALWAYS enjoy coming to Yorkshire and I’ve spent four days here in the last few weeks. The hidden depths of Yorkshire’s people and landscape never cease to impress me.

My most recent visit was not the first time I’ve seen those affected by floods in Yorkshire since becoming Labour leader. The Boxing Day floods of 2015 caused devastation across the region, and this year’s floods have been just as heart-breaking for so many families.

Last month, in Conisbrough, I met a family of five being moved into another family’s home. They had lost everything and were crammed in with their friends – another family of five. Their resilience and spirit was incredible but no-one should be forced to spend Christmas like that.

Over a decade ago, Conservative leader David Cameron admitted climate change would increase the regularity of flooding in England. Then his government cut flood defence spending and river management by nearly a third – and opened up a northsouth divide in flood defence spending. Labour will put £5.6bn into flood defences; because the first duty of a government is to keep people safe and because prevention is better than cure.

This is one example of how a Labour government will be on your side.

The Tories either do not consider or do not care about the consequences of their actions in Yorkshire, on flooding or elsewhere. In the 1980s they laid waste to manufacturing and the traditional industries that were closely tied to so many communities and so many good jobs; abandoning those communities in the process. In the last 10 years they have gone even further; closing schools, hospitals and fire stations, and allowing low wages, poverty and homelessness to surge.

The Conservatives promised a “Northern Powerhouse” but they have starved Yorkshire’s potential.

Under the Tories, Yorkshire will get seven times less transport investment per person than London. The Yorkshire Post and other newspapers across this region know all too well the need for investment, and I commend the Power Up the North campaign for putting the needs of the North at the heart of this election.

Without affordable, reliable transport, business and opportunities suffer – that is why Labour will build Crossrail for the North to connect millions of people across northern towns and cities and cutting fares by a third. And we will take rail, mail, water and energy transmission into public ownership to cut bills and put people, not profiteers, first.

This is one way in which Labour will money back in your pocket.

Investing in transport serves another purpose – as part of our Green Industrial Revolution we will tackle the global threat of climate change by