London gets nearly five times as much transport funding as Yorkshire and the Humber

Research said London is set to receive £4,155 per person in transport investment compared to £844 per person for Yorkshire residents - the lowest level in the UK - although the Department for Transport has disputed the figures.

Labour MP for Bradford South, Judith Cummins, said: “Enough is enough - the Transport Secretary must put his money where his mouth is and give Bradford the funding it deserves.

“The fact that Yorkshire is to receive the lowest amount of investment in the whole country is nothing short of shocking.

"Bradford needs this money to kick-start its economy - London doesn’t need another shiny new railway.

“Transport for the North’s draft plan is an important first step.

“The government must firstly commit to this - and then take serious action as soon as possible to ensure Bradford and Yorkshire receive the funding they have been crying out for."

IPPR North, which commissioned the research, said the north has been underfunded in comparison to London for decades and that the Government told MPs before Christmas that this historic trend had been reversed.

Mrs Cummins accused the Government of "massaging" the figures.

But a government spokesman claimed the Department for Transport's analysis of the budget shows the north will receive slightly more investment than the south.

He said: “It is completely misleading for IPPR North to calculate spending figures in this way.

“Our analysis of planned central government transport investment shows that the spending for the north will receive more investment per person (£1,039) than the south (£1,029).

“For good reason, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority analysis focuses on the years for which departmental budgets have been set - 2017/18 to 2020/21 – and it covers 100 per cent of planned DfT capital spending during those years.

“To go beyond 2021, as IPPR North has done, will be highly unrepresentative as it will only focus on a narrow set of projects which have published long-term spending projections extending beyond this date. Several very large spending areas will be totally ignored.

“It is also simply false for IPPR North to suggest ‘London will no longer contribute to transport spending in the rest of the country’, and misleading for their analysis to include Transport for London projects which receive no central government funding."

Conservative MP for Shipley Philip Davies said plans for HS3, which will run through Bradford, show "considerable amounts" of money has already been invested in the area.

He said: “London has always received more funding for transport than anywhere else. This is largely because it has far more people visiting it from around the country.

“Clearly we need more funding in the north, and I will continue to argue for that. Bradford Council also need to help."

He said he is keen to make progress on plans for the Shipley Eastern Bypass following a visit from Transport Secretary Chris Grayling last year but said he is waiting for Bradford Council to look at costs for the scheme.

James Vasey, chair of Bradford Rail Users Group, said the disparity between investment in London and Yorkshire and the Humber is "unfair" and has an impact on Bradford's economy and regeneration.

He said: “Basic infrastructure is the cornerstone of economic growth.

"The research looks at spending based on population and the spending is more in London because that’s where people go and travel around and commute.

“So it’s understandable to an extent. I still think it’s slightly unfair for Yorkshire and the north of England that there’s such a disparity, it does have an impact.

“There needs to be a change. Not to the extent that we spend the same amount as London, but we need to say we want Bradford to be a growth region and will spend on transport accordingly."