BORIS Johnson risks seeing his pledge to "level up" the country turning into a policy of "bargain basement Britain," according to Bradford Council's leader.

Since taking office, the Prime Minister has pledged to boost services and spend in the North of the country through a number of levelling up proposals.

At a meeting of Bradford Council this week Council Leader Susan Hinchcliffe said Bradford should be the "poster child for levelling up."

But she criticised the PM for a number of recent announcements that she claimed threw the levelling up agenda into disarray.

These included the announcement late last year that the planned Northern Powerhouse Rail line, linking Northern cities by high speed rail and part of the Government's Integrated Rail Plan, would effectively be scrapped.

And more recently it has been announced that out of £3b pledged to local authorities to improve bus services, only £1.4b will actually be made available.

Mayor claims cut to bus improvement fund would mean 'managed decline' rather than service improvement

The Labour group put forward a motion calling for the Council to push Government to reconsider its NPR decision and include a Bradford station on the line if they do.

Cllr Hinchcliffe said: "The Bradford District should be a poster child for levelling up.

"We are investing in Bradford because we believe in it. We need a government that invests alongside us.

"I couldn't believe the Government made a decision not only to not create a Bradford NPR station, but to not even build NPR."

Referring to the November day that the announcement was made, she said: "The whole of the North was alongside the Bradford District that day.

"The Government's Integrated Rail Plan was not fit for purpose, and we are insisting on a re-think. The Government need to come up with a plan for the next 20 years, not just the next election cycle.

"I don't want us to be bargain basement Britain, I want us to be a prosperous Nation.

"We won't take no for an answer, we're asking Government to change their mind on its IRP.

"If the Government doesn't invest we'll end up with a bargain basement Britain."

Councillor Rebecca Poulsen, leader of the Conservative opposition, agreed that "Bradford has amazing potential for growth" but described the Council's regeneration plans as "haphazard."

She said that while they supported a new NPR station that would "open up" the city centre, she criticised aspects of the Council's proposals, such as proposing the location of the St James' Market site for the new station. She added: "Many found the planned location of the new station particularly unworkable."

She also warned that a single transport scheme wouldn't deliver everything the District needed.