Public transport in the government’s flagship “levelling up” areas is still so inadequate that even their own MPs do not rely on it, openDemocracy has found.
Both Conservative and Labour MPs for city regions outside London, including two ministers involved in the “levelling up” project, are driving hundreds of miles around their constituencies. It is four years since the Tories pledged to close the gap between the capital and the rest of the country.
The government awarded billions to city regions between 2017 and 2020 as part of a push to improve local transport networks – funding that was later rebranded as part of Boris Johnson’s “levelling up” agenda after his 2019 election victory.
