The Government should ‘deepen its commitment to the Northern Powerhouse, not abandon it' as part of the response to Brexit, according to Manchester mayoral hopeful Andy Burnham. 

Speaking at an event partnered by The MJ in Manchester, shadow home secretary Mr Burnham said: ‘It seems odd to me that the Government is hinting it seems to be about to pull the plug on its own Northern Powerhouse.

Mr Burnham claimed the areas of Manchester which voted for Brexit faced failures of housing, transport and opportunities, and he criticised the ‘arrogant' and ‘insulting' middle class response.

‘It is a howl of protest at Westminster,' he said. 

‘Grammar schools cannot possibly be the answer to what I am talking about.

He added: ‘I have concluded that Westminster has failed the north of England.

'I think that is why we got the result we did.

'We live - all of us - in a very unequal and unfair country.'

Mr Burnham said he would make transport, housing, skills and education his priorities if he was elected mayor. 

The event, organised by Neil Stewart Associates and sponsored by Capacity Grid, also heard Mr Burnham vow to hold the Government to account on its promise to deliver infrastructure investment.

Mr Burnham claimed you could not create an industrial policy for the North without investment in high quality rail.

He said: ‘The east-west connections across this country are simply not acceptable.

'They are not good enough.

'We need new, modern rail links to the great cities of the north and that must, in my view, be delivered in the Autumn Statement.

‘If the rumours are true that HS2 is being cut back to a point where it won't be able to link into an HS3 scheme, well that would be basically to pull the plug on the Northern Powerhouse. 

‘I'm holding the government to account on the commitments it's made on high-speed east-west rail.'