Shadow transport secretary says she would remove �6bn from budget, the largest cuts put forward by any shadow minister
Maria Eagle, one of Ed Miliband's earliest supporters in the shadow cabinet, has said she backs transport spending cuts worth �6bn, and warned that Labour will not be elected unless it has credibility on the deficit and recognises the new economic reality.
In a Guardian interview, the shadow transport secretary said she supported two-thirds of the cuts being introduced by the coalition government, although she had some sharp differences in priority. It is the largest cuts programme both in absolute and proportional terms put forward by any shadow cabinet member.
It is also remarkable because it comes from someone on the left of the party, and follows a period of silence on the deficit from senior party figures since two initiatives by Ed Miliband and Ed Balls early in January.
Until now only the shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy, had set out a wide-ranging cuts programme, and he is seen as a figure on what was once the Blairite wing.
Polls show Labour trails the Conservatives badly as the party considered to be best equipped to take tough decisions.
Eagle also committed to make spending pledges only by switching resources within the budget and "by being open with the public about what this will require to be cut". She promised that if elected after 2015 she would find extra resources only by being tough with the vested interests in the train and bus companies, and not by seeking resources from the Treasury.
She said there was "a something for nothing culture" across transport, where train companies made big profits off high levels of public subsidy and felt they had no responsibility. "That has got to change. They are making big profits out of �4bn of public subsidy. It is not as if they are succeeding purely through their entrepreneurship," Eagle said.
"The reality of the deficit means that we are facing a very different landscape from when we were in government. Reducing the deficit requires us to support cuts in spending that we might not have in the past. Some of this is painful," she said. "I have identified over �6bn of reductions in the Department of Transport budget that we will not oppose, out of the �9bn the government has proposed. That is two-thirds that I am supporting.
"There is no division on this. This is not being driven by a particular faction of the shadow cabinet. It is not something just Blairities think. We all have a responsibility to set out how we would meet the challenge of the deficit within our areas of policy and I have done so in transport. Some of these are painful cuts."
Eagle said she supported �528m efficiency cuts in Network Rail, �245m cuts in CrossRail, �3.36bn cuts in the Highways Agency roads programme, �794m efficiencies in the roads maintenance programme, �1.73bn cuts in the Transport for London budget and �231m in the local authority roads programme. All the figures apply to the spending round.
She said she opposed �759m cuts in Network Rail and would use the cash to keep rail fares down. She said she would have retained �500m planned government cuts in the roads programme, and some cash for safe cycle lanes and an electric car-charging network.
"I give these detailed figures not to show to the media we see the importance of deficit credibility, but because we think it is the right thing to do. We are going to inherit this. The next parliament is not about redistributing the proceeds of growth. At the next election we are going to have to be tougher than Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, and think about ways of how we can deliver more with less. That is the key challenge we face, and we have to get into that mindset. It means being bolder about responsible capitalism."
Eagle said after the election she would squeeze the rail companies by refusing to give them the right to lift the fares cap, and get the bus companies to support concessionary fares for 16- to 18-years-olds in education and training.
She promised to bring the bus network outside London back under some form of democratic control, as it is in the capital. She said her proposals represented "the biggest devolution of power in transport since Barbara Castle in the late 70s".
Eagle said: "I think it is mad that the Department of Transport awards regional rail franchises and designs new trains. It is mad that ministers have to sign off every new road and rail scheme in England and Wales. Local authorities then have to engage consultants to lobby ministers to OK their roads."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/17/labour-maria-eagle-transport-spending-cuts
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