Business Travel News EuropeBusiness Travel News Europe
Business Travel News Europe
  • NEWSOpen Menu
    • Accommodation
    • Air Travel
    • Ground Transport
    • Management
    • Meetings
    • On the Move
    • Payment & Expense
    • Technology
    • TMC & Distribution
    • Travel Procurement
    • Recent Issues
  • FEATURESOpen Menu
    • View All Features
  • CONVERSATIONSOpen Menu
    • Interviews and Q&As
    • Guest columns
    • Podcasts
    • VIEW ALL CONVERSATIONS
  • RESOURCESOpen Menu
    • Powered Up: The travel tech of today & tomorrow
    • The Future of Meetings
    • Smart Money: Cards, payments & expenses
    • The Journey Towards Sustainable Business Travel
    • Safety Measures: Risk, duty of care & wellbeing
    • Stepping It Up: Small & midsized travel programmes
    • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in business travel
    • Business Travel Rebooted
    • New Horizons: The 2022 sourcing guide
    • Wheels in Motion
  • EVENTSOpen Menu
    • Webinars
    • Business Travel Show Europe
    • Business Travel Show Europe Kick Off
    • Business Travel Awards Europe
    • Business Travel Intelligence Summit Europe
    • Business Travel Accommodation Summit
    • Business Travel Tech Talk
    • Entertainment Travel Summit
    • Global Travel Risk Summit
    • Strategic Meetings Summit
    • Sustainable Business Travel Summit Europe
    • VIEW ALL EVENTS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • NEWSOpen Menu
    • Accommodation
    • Air Travel
    • Ground Transport
    • Management
    • Meetings
    • On the Move
    • Payment & Expense
    • Technology
    • TMC & Distribution
    • Travel Procurement
    • Recent Issues
  • FEATURESOpen Menu
    • View All Features
  • CONVERSATIONSOpen Menu
    • Interviews and Q&As
    • Guest columns
    • Podcasts
    • VIEW ALL CONVERSATIONS
  • RESOURCESOpen Menu
    • Powered Up: The travel tech of today & tomorrow
    • The Future of Meetings
    • Smart Money: Cards, payments & expenses
    • The Journey Towards Sustainable Business Travel
    • Safety Measures: Risk, duty of care & wellbeing
    • Stepping It Up: Small & midsized travel programmes
    • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in business travel
    • Business Travel Rebooted
    • New Horizons: The 2022 sourcing guide
    • Wheels in Motion
  • EVENTSOpen Menu
    • Webinars
    • Business Travel Show Europe
    • Business Travel Show Europe Kick Off
    • Business Travel Awards Europe
    • Business Travel Intelligence Summit Europe
    • Business Travel Accommodation Summit
    • Business Travel Tech Talk
    • Entertainment Travel Summit
    • Global Travel Risk Summit
    • Strategic Meetings Summit
    • Sustainable Business Travel Summit Europe
    • VIEW ALL EVENTS
  • SUBSCRIBE
Business Travel News Europe
  • Business Travel News Europe on Twitter
  • BTN Europe on LinkedIn
  • BTN Europe on Facebook
  • NEWS
    • Accommodation
    • Air Travel
    • Ground Transport
    • Management
    • Meetings
    • On the Move
    • Payment & Expense
    • Technology
    • TMC & Distribution
    • Travel Procurement
    • Recent Issues
    SubscribeBTN Europe NewsletterBTN Europe Magazine
  • FEATURES
    • View All Features
    2023 Hotlist BTN EuropeThe 2023 Hotlist
    Shanghai ChinaThe great reopening of China?
    Europe from spaceA European tour

  • CONVERSATIONS
    • Interviews and Q&As
    • Guest columns
    • Podcasts
    • VIEW ALL CONVERSATIONS
    David DuffyHow the EU has fixed ESG
    Helen HodgkinsonLet payments shine a light on your environmental impact
    John Sturino, vice president of product and technology, EgenciaWhy business travellers need more control over their trips
  • RESOURCES
    • Powered Up: The travel tech of today & tomorrow
    • The Future of Meetings
    • Smart Money: Cards, payments & expenses
    • The Journey Towards Sustainable Business Travel
    • Safety Measures: Risk, duty of care & wellbeing
    • Stepping It Up: Small & midsized travel programmes
    • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in business travel
    • Business Travel Rebooted
    • New Horizons: The 2022 sourcing guide
    • Wheels in Motion
    Tools & ResourcesEurope's Leading TMCs 2022Booking tools – the essential guideCorporate Travel Index EuropeTravel entry requirementsBTN Europe podcastsBTSE Kick Off - CEO InterviewsRecent issues of BTN Europe
  • EVENTS
    • Webinars
    • Business Travel Show Europe
    • Business Travel Show Europe Kick Off
    • Business Travel Awards Europe
    • Business Travel Intelligence Summit Europe
    • Business Travel Accommodation Summit
    • Business Travel Tech Talk
    • Entertainment Travel Summit
    • Global Travel Risk Summit
    • Strategic Meetings Summit
    • Sustainable Business Travel Summit Europe
    • VIEW ALL EVENTS
    Business Travel Show Europe Kick Off

    Business Travel Show Europe Kick Off, 23 February,

    7th Annual Global Travel Risk Summit Europe

    Global Travel Risk Summit Europe, April 2023,

    Sustainable Business Travel Summit Europe

    3rd Annual Sustainable Business Travel Summit

  • SUBSCRIBE

Columnists

Westminster Watch: A turn of the funding tap

By Gareth Morgan / 17 September 2019
Share

Backing Johnson’s vision of a turbo-charged North may bring forth the money for long-neglected project

During Boris Johnson’s campaign for the leadership of the Conservative Party, his media and social media outriders (those that were loosely attached to the campaign but would carry the message each day) would reel off the impacts of a Johnson premiership. Top of the list was, of course, delivering Brexit, but a close second was investing in the north of England.

Take this from key Conservative commentator Tim Montgomerie on 18 July: “I’m voting for @BorisJohnson to be the next Conservative leader… because I hope and believe he’ll invest in national and especially northern infrastructure in a way no Tory PM has ever done before.”

The initial month of the premiership continued this rhetoric. In one of his first speeches, PM Johnson stood in front of Stephenson’s Rocket in Manchester and sketched out his vision for the north of England. It had the flourishes we have come to expect. He would deliver the “most formidable transport and technological connectivity on the planet”; he would “turbo-charge the north”; he would do “with Northern Powerhouse Rail what we did with Crossrail in London”.

He also promised to fund the Leeds-Manchester route. He would leave it to local representatives to fill in the detail but he was “ready to do a deal in the Autumn”.


The north of England is often thought of as natural Labour territory


Labour immediately hit back with accusations that there was no detail, that you couldn’t trust Johnson or that the actual length of track being promised was only the length of the Central Line on the London Underground but still… the PM was making healing the North-South divide a priority.

It is important for us to consider why. The north of England is often thought of as natural Labour territory. Conservative electoral chances may well depend on cracking this traditional Labour stronghold.

Theresa May in the 2017 general election had a similar strategy. She identified scores of seats where the size of UKIP’s vote was greater than the gap between the Labour MP and the Conservative challenger. Her team’s thinking was that if they ran a Eurosceptic campaign they could hoover up a collapsed UKIP vote and nab the seats from Labour.

This didn’t happen for a myriad of reasons, one of the major ones being that 2017 wasn’t the Brexit election Tory HQ had banked on.

The next election could well be. An avowedly pro-Brexit administration that is throwing money (or pledges of money) at projects in the north of England may well deliver the strategy envisioned in 2017.

So what does this mean for us? If a Johnson premiership is viewed with some nervousness by lobbyists for transport infrastructure in the south then the opposite is true of those in the north.

HS3/Crossrail for the North/Northern Powerhouse Rail – call it what you will – has been dutifully developed by transport authorities in the north, but there hasn’t been a breakthrough on the £39bn project.

The government is, meanwhile, launching a review of HS2 – with a “go or no-go” call to be made by the end of this year. HS2 has a station at Manchester Airport but if it does go ahead as yet it isn’t clear who will pick up the tab for it. The second phase of HS2, Leeds-Manchester, won’t be complete until between 2035 and 2040 if the government follows a recommendation by new HS2 Ltd chairman Allan Cook.

The challenge for the proponents of these projects is to make themselves part of the delivery of this Johnson vision. To have their scheme seen as part of the ambition to “turbo charge the North”, and to take the opportunity to put their case now – and then funding taps will seemingly be turned on.

More Columnists
Related
David DuffyHow the EU has fixed ESG
Helen HodgkinsonLet payments shine a light on your environmental impact
John Sturino, vice president of product and technology, EgenciaPower to the people: why business travellers need more control

SPONSORED CONTENT

The workplace has changed. Does your travel & expense match up?
The workplace has changed. Does your travel & expense match up?By Cytric by Amadeus

Does your travel & expense match up?... KEEP READING

The eight trends shaping ground transportation
The eight trends shaping ground transportationBy Enterprise National

Eight emerging ground transportation priorities shaping business travel in 2022 and beyond... KEEP READING

More Columnists

How the EU has fixed ESG
How the EU has fixed ESG
Let payments shine a light on your environmental impact
Let payments shine a light on your environmental impact
Power to the people: why business travellers need more control
Power to the people: why business travellers need more control
How digital payments are driving efficiencies in corporate travel
How digital payments are driving efficiencies in corporate travel

VIEW ALL
  • Most Read
  • Most Shared
  1. Managed travel unicorn TripActions to rebrand next week
  2. Amex GBT adopts ‘segment-driven model’ as Geall takes SME role
  3. Eurostar Group aims to double traffic as new brand launches
  4. Air France launches new business class cabin on long-haul routes
  5. The great reopening of China?
  1. Brexit challenges pile up for UK-EU business travel
  2. Netherlands government appoints business travel partners
  3. European hotel bookings approaching pre-Covid levels
  4. TouristMobile adds Torsten Kriedt to leadership roster
  5. Countries agree goal of achieving net zero for aviation by 2050
Business Travel News EuropeBusiness Travel News Europe
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • EDITORIAL CALENDAR
  • Business Travel Show Europe
  • Business Travel News Europe on Twitter
  • BTN Europe on LinkedIn
  • BTN Europe on Facebook
BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS EUROPE
NORTHSTAR TRAVEL GROUP
Business Travel News
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Editorial calendar
  • Editorial guidelines
  • Subscribe to BTN Europe
  • Subscribe to BTN U.S.
  • Subscribe to Travel Procurement
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms & conditions
Northstar Travel Group
  • Corporate travel
  • Business Travel Show
  • Business Travel Awards
  • BTN U.S.
  • The Beat
  • Travel Procurement

  • Travel Technology
  • Travel Tech Show
  • Phocuswire
  • Phocuswright
  • Intelliguide
  • Meetings & incentives
  • M&IT
  • AMI
  • ConventionSource
  • M&IT Awards

  • Retail travel
  • Travel Weekly
  • Travel Pulse

  • Northstar Travel Group
  • View all Northstar brands
BTNGroup
Business Travel News EuropeBusiness Travel NewsTravel ProcurementThe BeatBusiness Travel Show Europe
Northstar Travel Group
Copyright ©2022, Northstar Travel Media Ltd, The Epworth, 25 City Road, London EC1Y 1AA, UK
RRManagement rrtestprocurement