![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_starmer25.jpg\")
Sir Keir Starmer<\/p>\n“I want to get it right,” Sir Keir Starmer said<\/p>\n
18:46, 25 Sep 2025Updated 18:49, 25 Sep 2025<\/p>\n
Sir Keir Starmer<\/p>\n
Sir Keir Starmer says he is ‘absolutely committed’ to Northern Powerhouse Rail. Speaking amid concerns over delays to the project – including from Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham<\/a> – the Prime Minister said work is being done on the timings and costings of services that go through the East Midlands.<\/p>\n He told ITV Calendar: “I’m absolutely committed to Northern Powerhouse Rail. That commitment remains. I want to get it right. And, we saw with HS2 what happens when a government doesn\u2019t take time to get it right.<\/p>\n “So this is about taking the time to get this right. It’s not deviating from the commitment. And of course, we’ve already put \u00a33.5bn into the upgrade of the existing line.<\/p>\n To see planning applications; traffic and road diversions and layout changes; and more, visit the Public Notices Portal HERE<\/a><\/p>\n “But the commitment remains. That commitment has to come with an absolute iron determination that we will get this right, because we can all say the mess that was made of HS2 by the last government.<\/p>\n “I’m not prepared to let that happen in relation to Northern Powerhouse Rail. We’re consulting, as you would expect, with representatives in the region about that.”<\/p>\n Plans to revive Northern Powerhouse Rail will be unveiled in the coming weeks, government sources have said. The upcoming announcement is expected to set out the scope and funding for the scheme aimed at cutting travel time between cities in northern England.<\/p>\n Earlier, Mr Burnham – who is being widely tipped to challenge Sir Keir’s leadership – said rumoured delays to building a high-speed railway from Manchester to Liverpool were ‘disappointing’.<\/p>\n The mayor has championed a project to build a new railway line between the two cities, which would stop in Warrington and Manchester Airport<\/a>, describing it as the ‘Elizabeth Line of the north west’.<\/p>\n It was thought the project would be the headline announcement in the PM speech to Labour<\/a> Conference, held in Liverpool, next week.<\/p>\n But the scheme has been put on hold to review the budget<\/a> and avoid spiralling costs seen with the HS2 line, according to BBC<\/a> News.<\/p>\n “The news today about the rail project we have worked on being put on hold, when we see projects ongoing in the south, I do not think that’s the plan we need,” Mr Burnham told BBC Radio Manchester.<\/p>\n “We need to be prioritising investment here in a place that’s growing stronger than anywhere else in the UK. We are the fastest growing city region in the country, but that means the infrastructure is creaking. The railways do not function properly. The motorways, you can lose a good chunk of your day on.<\/p>\n “This infrastructure is not in place to support the further growth of Greater Manchester, the growth we want to see. It’s disappointing. I do believe the transport secretary wants to help us to deliver our ambitions but I just would have to say it feels projects in the southern half of the country are greenlit but red-lighted here.”<\/p>\n Sir Keir also told BBC East Midlands: “We do have plans to electrify it. We’ve got to get that in the right order and it is really important. We’ve got to get it right, got to get the timing right, but we’re committed to doing it.<\/p>\n “We’re working through the costings, and we want to do this as quickly as possible. It is important. I do understand that that movement on the line is hugely important to everybody in the East Midlands.<\/p>\n “And so we need to get on with it as quickly possible, but we need it right. What you’ve seen in the past, particularly with railway projects, is the government’s not taking the time to get things right. And it ends up in a much worse place, and I don’t want that to happen.”<\/p>\n Chancellor Rachel Reeves said in June that plans for the project would be published within weeks, but no details have emerged to date.<\/p>\n On Wednesday (September 24), a government source said ministers were ‘taking time to get this right’; was determined to avoid repeating the previous Tory administration’s ‘failures over HS2’; and that it would ‘set out plans in the coming weeks’.<\/p>\n The Northern Powerhouse project was first proposed by former Tory chancellor George Osborne in 2014 before being shelved under Boris Johnson’s administration.<\/p>\n Its aim was to boost economic growth in northern England, including through improved rail services between Liverpool and Leeds, which often suffer delays and cancellations.<\/p>\n When former prime minister Rishi Sunak scrapped HS2 north of Birmingham, some \u00a312bn of its budget was set aside to improve rail journeys between Manchester and Liverpool as part of NPR.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“I want to get it right,” Sir Keir Starmer said 18:46, 25 Sep 2025Updated 18:49, 25 Sep 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[19306,59,57,58,50,58863,2142,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-160655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-andy-burnham","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-northern-powerhouse","tag-sir-keir-starmer","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_Labour-leadership.jpg\")
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham(Image: PA)<\/p>\n![\"Prime](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_Cabinet-meeting.jpg\")
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer(Image: PA)<\/p>\n