THE North-East has been let down by its Labour leadership, Chancellor Sajid Javid said yesterday as he launched his party’s manifesto for the North-East with a promise of major road-building in almost all corners of the region.

Mr Javid was joined on a visit to the SubSea Innovation factory in the Faverdale area of Darlington by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps who promised that he would seriously consider the construction of a northern Darlington by-pass, of a Toft Hill by-pass, as well as improve road access to Eaglescliffe station and ease congestion through Yarm.

It can be no coincidence that the schemes are in the seats of Darlington, Bishop Auckland and Stockton South which the Tories feel they are on course to win.

Before dashing off with the Bishop Auckland candidate Dehenna Davison to visit the site of a proposed road around Toft Hill, Mr Shapps told The Northern Echo: “We’ve got a big budget for roads, £28bn, we’ve got a big budget for rail, £48bn in addition to Northern Powerhouse Rail, so we can do it. Our stuff is costed so we will be in a position to deliver.”

Mr Shapps said that the Conservative candidate in Darlington, Peter Gibson, was pushing for a new link road from Great Burdon across to the A1(M).

The transport promises also include dualling the A66 west from Scotch Corner, widening the A1(M) in Northumberland, and building a new Tees crossing on Teesside.

In terms of rail, Mr Shapps said that plans to upgrade Darlington’s Bank Top station would be at “the heart of the transport revolution”, and then he said: “I’ve heard the case for linking Middlesbrough directly with London, and this will have our support.”

He pledged that outdated Pacer trains would be completely removed by next year, and he agreed that local trains across the Tees Valley are “nowhere near good enough for the area that invented the railway”.

He said: “The one thing I want to achieve is making our trains run on time and that includes sorting out Northern.”

Mr Javid also wanted to outline a series of spending pledges, including 20,000 more police officers (352 in the North-East), 50,000 more nurses and 50,000 more GP appointments.

He said: “Honouring the referendum result is especially important to people here in the North-East. You can feel it on the doorsteps, and Labour will not honour the referendum. They will negotiate some other deal, put it to a referendum with two choices: remain or remain in all but name only, and that is letting down the British people.”

Mr Javid claimed that in the North-East, since the Conservatives came to power, 70,000 new jobs had been created along with 30,000 new businesses.

He said: “Where the North-East has been let down bitterly in the last few years is the local Labour leadership, local councils and MPs. They only care about playing ideological games – they are talking about raising taxes only on the richest, but it will be taxes on the many not the few, and we will all pay the price.”

However, in a response to a question from a member of the local Conservative Party, Mr Javid said he would not be matching Labour’s pledge to borrow £58bn to compensate the 3.7m WASPI women – women born in the 1950s whose pension qualification age has been pushed back from 60 to 65 or 66.

Mr Javid said: “While we understand and are sympathetic to their concerns, we have a duty to be honest about what the country can afford. The country cannot afford £58bn given the other priorities, that’s the honest truth. Labour in their desperation are promising everything to everyone.”

Mr Javid opened his speech by saying how much he had enjoyed his curry in Darlington on Wednesday night, having arrived in the town from a very similar manifesto launch in the north-west.

The two cabinet ministers had visited Café Spice in Clarks Yard, where the Transport Secretary had had a chicken tikka masala and the Chancellor had had a Delhi korai chicken.

Mr Javid said: “It was a fantastic curry due to the quality of the food and the excellent service.”