General election 2019: Labour plans to shift power and investment north

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Labour has promised an “irreversible shift” of power and investment to working people outside the south-east of England, if they win the election.

John McDonnell will pledge £150bn for schools, hospitals and housing on top of existing spending plans to be paid for through borrowing.

The shadow chancellor says he will move Treasury staff out of London to ensure the regions get a fair share of it.

Chancellor Sajid Javid said Labour’s plans were “fantasy economics”.

In his first major speech of the election campaign, Mr McDonnell will promise “investment on a scale never seen before in this country and certainly never seen before in the north and outside of London and the south east”.

Speaking in Liverpool, the city of his birth, Mr McDonnell will promise to set up a Treasury unit in the north of England to make spending decisions away from Whitehall.

“Power is coming home, back to the people,” he will say.

“We can only deliver the real change we need by putting power into the hands of communities, of the people who know their local area best.”

Could a Labour government spend this much?

Analysis by BBC business correspondent Simon Gompertz

These investment plans are so big that some experts wonder whether a Labour government could actually commission projects at the rate required to get the cash spent.

Taking social and green spending together gets you to an average figure of £55bn a year in new money.

That is nearly £5bn extra a month, a number that represents more than double current levels of investment.

But major projects can take years to get under way.

So Labour ministers might find themselves promising better schools and hospitals but fall frustratingly behind on delivery.

If they were to manage it, would they be able to keep the debt under control?

The strategy is to pay for all this by borrowing, not taxing.

Labour believes the investment would make the UK more productive, that a faster-growing economy can afford to borrow more.

Mr McDonnell and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will also use their trip to north-west England to unveil Labour’s campaign bus, with the election message: “It’s time for real change.”

Mr Corbyn plans to host a rally in Manchester in the evening and will travel on the bus as the party targets “dozens” of marginal constituencies in the coming five weeks.

At the 2017 general election, Labour announced plans to set up a national transformation fund to overhaul the UK’s transport links and infrastructure.

This includes a social transformation fund, which Mr McDonnell said would would now get an extra £100bn, providing a £150bn pot to be spent over the next five years.

The fund will be used to “upgrade and expand our schools, hospitals, care homes and council houses”, he will say in his speech.

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A further £250bn of investment will be spent across the country through the Green Transformation Fund.

Spending on regional development looks set to be a key election battleground, as the Conservatives target Labour-held seats in the Midlands and north of England.

Conservative leader Boris Johnson has promised to give the north of England more control over its railways, greater powers for some elected mayors and a new economic development body.

He has also hinted at backing for Northern Powerhouse Rail – a planned high speed rail line linking Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Hull.

The Conservatives said the spending figures to be announced by Mr McDonnell did not add up.

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In a speech in Manchester, Chancellor Sajid Javid is expected to say Mr Corbyn and Mr McDonnell are “like the anti-vaxxers of economic policy”.

“Not only did they reject the treatment needed to heal our economy and get the deficit down by four-fifths, they now want to take every step imaginable to make the country sick and unhealthy again.

“There are serious consequences to these fantasy economics,” he will say.

Mr Javid will set out plans to invest in education, technology, and infrastructure to help “unleash Britain’s potential” – but he will argue that the most important thing for the economy is to deliver Brexit.

“Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour would damage our economy by wasting 2020 having another two referendums on EU membership and Scottish independence – leaving business facing even more uncertainty,” the chancellor will add.