Reform UK says it would scrap Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) if elected, drawing accusations that the leadership is siding with the ‘London establishment’.

The think tank Policy Exchange has published a new report opposing plans to build a new high-speed rail scheme from Liverpool to Manchester and Leeds.

It argues journeys on the NPR would take longer than on the existing service and says the Manchester-Liverpool section could cost up to £30bn.

The report instead proposes a Manchester version of London's Elizabeth Line that would provide a high-capacity east-west route across central Manchester.

Writing the Forward to the report, Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice MP compares NPR to the ‘historic disaster’ of HS2.

‘[T]he voters of the North do not want, and never have wanted, a handful of high-speed rail lines, serving a handful of big cities, at fares only business people on expenses can afford,’ he writes.

Defending the scheme, Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, accused Tice and Nigel Farage of being ‘creatures of the London establishment’.

‘Across Europe, every other country connects its big cities by modern high-speed rail but, like the Conservatives before them, the Reform Party seems to believe that this should be a privilege only conferred on the southern half of the UK,’ he said.

‘We have higher ambitions for the North than them and will resist any politician who says people here can be treated as second-class citizens when it comes to transport.’

To learn more about Reform UK, check out: Reform UK: What Britain’s fastest rising party stands for and Reform UK’s ‘Doge’ witch-hunts will achieve little.