LABOUR risks driving businesses out of Britain with “unaffordable electoral bungs” such as its promise to hand free bus passes to under-25s, the Transport Secretary says today.
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Chris Grayling states that Jeremy Corbyn’s latest pledge would result in the axing of dozens of road projects “designed to get Britain moving”.
Likening the promise of free bus travel to Labour’s election pledge to abolish tuition fees, Mr Grayling labels the proposal a “mirage” which would result in young people losing jobs.
Under a scheme announced by Mr Corbyn on Thursday, local councils who take control of their own bus services or put the services into public ownership would be given funds to finance free travel for under-25s. The policy would cost £1.4 billion a year – a sum Labour said would be funded from vehicle excise duty revenues currently allocated to road building.
Mr Grayling writes: “By axing the National Roads Fund and spending the money on bus passes, it means cancelling dozens of projects that are designed to get Britain moving, and crucially to attract investment and jobs for that generation of under-25s.
“So no more dualling of the A303 to the South West. No more dualling of the A1 in the North East. No new river crossing on the Thames to ease the jams at Dartford. And dozens more.”
Announcing the pledge at a school in Derby, Mr Corbyn criticised “Tory austerity” and said: “Labour wants to help young people make the most out of life by investing in them”. But Mr Grayling says: “If you stop investing in a modern road system to give an unaffordable electoral bung to new voters, the investors who could create great jobs for them will do so in another country instead.”