Lord Prescott 'welcomes' HS3 proposals

The original Northern Way was created by the three Northern Regional Development Agencies in 2004 on my instruction. It was immediately adopted by a Labour government in its report Northern Way: Making It Happen.

Unfortunately, the Northern Way plan, its resources and the Northern Regional Development Agencies were scrapped in one of the first acts of Chancellor Osborne in 2010.

It's taken four years but I'm glad the Government has U-turned to launch its version of the Northern Way, Osborne's Northern Powerhouse.

We eagerly await the promised resources in the Government's upcoming expenditure statement.

Unfortunately, it means the North has missed out on more than four years of lost growth, jobs and prosperity.

Osborne turned Labour's Northern Way into a Tory Northern Delay.