This week Johnny Mercer (MP for Plymouth Moorview) and I tried a new tactic to attract the government’s attention over our vital rail link. There was to be a debate and vote this Tuesday about extending High Speed rail from Birmingham to Crewe.
Over last weekend he and I agreed that we would vote against this bill unless the government demonstrated its commitment to the South West’s rail infrastructure.
I drafted what is called a reasoned amendment stating that the House should refuse a second reading to that bill unless 3 things happened, namely two projects that we have been long calling for and a response to the Peninsula Rail Task Force 20 year plan which had been submitted back in November 2016. We sent the motion to fellow regional Conservatives and to our whips (who are responsible for getting government business through the House).
The blue touch paper had been lit and the expected explosion duly happened.
Our colleagues rowed right in behind us. The level of frustration at the lack of progress since we submitted our 20 year ask had been building steadily. On Sunday the Secretary of State for Transport called me at home. We had what is known in the trade as a full and frank discussion. It led to an emergency meeting in his room the following day with six regional Tory MPs present and him and his officials. The meeting was tense but we stood our ground: we need to see more focus in our region. We reached agreement on our short term asks. He agreed to incorporate them into a letter before the Tuesday debate.
When it came the letter was not perfect, but it represented significant progress. The government will respond in detail to the PRTF report by the end of February. The resilience works at Dawlish (maybe £200 million) is a priority and will be started as soon as possible. Work on speeding up the Devon track will be incorporated into the plans for 2018 or 2019. We also discussed other improvements and the Department agreed it had to do more.
It is not the first time in my 25 years I have used a threat of rebellion to extract something for this region. It is helpful to have alongside you somebody who is steady under fire and who will never taker a backward step. It is not the first time and I suspect will not be the last.