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Transport (North-West)

I totally agree. When I have travelled to watch Widnes lose against Warrington at rugby, I have seen the benefit that a new bridge could bring to that area. We have waited too long for that scheme, for which my hon. Friend has rightly been a champion. We want to see that Ministers are listening, and we need that bridge sooner rather than later. The economic benefits that it would bring cannot be overestimated. We are talking about an economy of £111 billion, which is the 12th-largest in Europe. The north-west has a population of nearly 7 million people and 230,000 successful businesses. North-west England truly operates on an international scale. It has two major airports, as well as Blackpool, so how on earth can we not now be planning a high-speed link into the north-west to serve the three cities? We are, without doubt, the powerhouse and the generator of the economy. People want to talk about the midlands, and there is nothing wrong with the midlands, but the high-speed link should not be diverting off there first—it should be coming straight to the north-west. We should be building from either end—from the north and the south—and meeting in the middle. That would eventually link in Birmingham as well. This is about linking the region, and we cannot afford to underestimate the value of that high-speed link coming into the north-west. We should not put England's second city down.