A BRADFORD MP has urged the Government to press ahead with a Northern Powerhouse Rail stop in Bradford. 

MPs this week debated the Government’s recent budget and tax announcements.

Bradford South MP Judith Cummins welcomed reports that Bradford is now to be included on Northern Powerhouse Rail route.

She said: "As a region, the North’s economic output by gross value added was £304 billion in 2014, which would make it the 10th largest economy in the EU if it were a country.

"As a region, though, it trails substantially behind the south-east in economic output per capita. That has to change if our nation as a whole is to prosper and our productivity is to increase.”

In her speech, Mrs Cummins said the Government had prioritised transport investment in London and the South East at the expense of Bradford, the Yorkshire region and the North. 

She said the Finance Bill short-changed Bradford and that continued investment in transport infrastructure is needed to boost productivity and unleash the full potential of the Northern Powerhouse.

“Ministers did nothing to redress the imbalance in favour of London in spending on transport, whereby it gets seven times more per head than the North," she said. 

She added the bill "concentrates on many of the wrong priorities as far as my constituents are concerned and, importantly, does not seek to redress the economic imbalance between the North and the South".