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Sajid Javid to hail 'infrastructure revolution' at Tory conference – as opposition MPs plot Brexit ambush – Sky News, Sky.com

Sajid Javid to hail 'infrastructure revolution' at Tory conference – as opposition MPs plot Brexit ambush – Sky News, Sky.com


             

Sajid Javid will detail a multibillion pound spending blitz on roads, buses and broadband as the Tories continue their fightback at their conference in Manchester.

The chancellor’s infrastructure spending spree – aimed at diverting attention from criticism of Boris Johnson on Brexit and his friendship with an American businesswoman – includes plans for an all-electric bus town.

    

Hailing an “infrastructure revolution”, Mr Javid told Sky News ahead of his conference speech: “It will be the biggest increase in infrastructure investment by the government that this country has ever seen.

“These are the things that we rely on every day: the roads that take us to work, take our kids to school, the fiber optics that can help small businesses trade with people throughout the world.

“So many other countries have made advances on this and we have done a lot over the last few years, but we can do so much more.”

But Labor’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell has already dismissed Mr Javid’s plans as “reannouncements and damp squibs”, also describing them as “tinkering around the edges”.

The spending pledges, on day two of the Tory conference, come as opposition party leaders meet at Westminster to plot their latest moves to block no-deal, thwart Brexit or even oust Mr Johnson from 10 Downing Street.

The Conservatives are said to have placed cars and even helicopters on standby to rush ministers and MPs from Manchester to London in case of a parliamentary ambush and knife-edge votes in the House of Commons this week.

    

        

                                      Health Secretary Matt Hancock                                                                                                                                                       
Health secretary says the UK ‘may well ‘leave the EU without a deal                

The infrastructure measures Mr Javid will outline include:

  • Funding for the first projects in the government forthcoming second Road Investment Strategy – which will set out plans to deliver on more than £ 25 bn already committed for strategic roads between 2020 and 2025.
  • 14 new local road schemes being brought into development to make improvements and upgrades; including work to complete the dualling of the A 66 Trans-Pennine expressway from Scotch Corner to Penrith and the A 46 Newark bypass; improving the M 60 Simister Island interchange in Manchester; and starting construction on the A 428 in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire.
  • (£) m for bus services across England. This includes new “superbus” networks, including the creation of Britain’s first ever all-electric bus town, and expanding the fleet of low emission buses.

  • The chancellor will also set out new plans to invest £ 5bn to support the roll-out of full-fiber, 5G and other gigabit capable networks to the hardest to reach 20% of the country.

Mr Javid – the son of a bus driver – also says the government will make sure that passengers using the bus get the best experience and best value for money. This will include:

  • Making more information available to app developers, which means that fares and location data on buses nationwide will be available to passengers online.
  • Working with industry to ensure that all buses accept contactless payments.
  • Investing an additional £ 30 m to improve existing routes and restore lost services.
  • £ 20 m on trialling on-demand bus services that will pick people up from their communities at a time that is convenient to them.

Responding to Mr Javid’s infrastructure announcements, Mr McDonnell said: “This combination of reannouncements and damp squibs shows up the real difference between the parties: the Tories tinkering around the edges, versus Labor’s fundamental shift of power and wealth from the few – to the many.

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“One hundred and thirteen times more for roads than for public transport makes a mockery of the Tories’ so-called green credentials.

” And yet another headline pledge, this time on broadband, turns out to be false: Boris Johnson called for full-fiber for all premises by 2025, but the chancellor now says he’ll invest £ 5bn in lower grade ‘gigabit-capable’ technology, less than a sixth of what it

“Labor will kick-start half a trillion of spending and lending to finance a Green Industrial Revolution and deliver a long-overdue rise in living standards after years of stagnating wages. “

    

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