Business of the House

John Lamont Excerpts

Thursday 14th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I wish my hon. Friend a happy birthday as well. I am sure he was already aware that he shared his birthday with His Majesty the King, but his is of course a much more important occasion—for this House today, anyway. I thank him for again raising that important matter for his constituents. He has already become an important Member of this place and is continuing to raise issues that affect Macclesfield, and particularly Poynton pool. He will know that community engagement is really important in these matters. I encourage him to raise that further in an Adjournment debate.

[John Lamont (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (Con)]

I have long campaigned for the Borders railway to be extended from Tweedbank to Hawick, Newcastleton and on to Carlisle. The last Conservative Government, with the SNP Administration in Edinburgh, committed through the Borderlands growth deal to fund the feasibility study to look at that extension. Shockingly, the new Labour Transport Secretary has put this under review. Can the Government make a statement to clarify whether they support this important cross-border transport link?

[Lucy Powell]

This Government are committed to upgrading our woeful rail infrastructure, which has suffered 14 years of neglect and under-investment from the hon. Gentleman’s party. I am afraid that many of the plans, like the one he described, were works of fiction. They were agreed to in theory, but there was no budget line at all given to them in the books. That is why we are fixing the foundations and ensuring that every single commitment we make—

[John Lamont]

The money was there.

[Lucy Powell]

The money absolutely was not there in this case. We are ensuring that we can take forward all these rail plans with confidence.