, Labour’s Shadow Transport
Secretary, responding to claims that breached the Ministerial
Code in Parliament yesterday, said:
“This Government is propping up a crumbling system of rail
privatisation. should and could have banned
Stagecoach from the rail industry for defaulting on its contract.
His claim that there is ‘no record’ of any previous ban is false.
Labour banned National Express in 2009 and he should have done
the same. should apologise to
Parliament and retract his statement.
“By cancelling the franchise even earlier than planned the
Government has added another £380 million to the East Coast
bailout. won’t ban Stagecoach because
banning the operator would have meant no direct award on West
Coast and taken the company out of the bidding process for East
Midlands and Southeastern. It could have triggered the end of
franchising and he won’t do it for that reason.”
Ends
Notes to editors
- · In the
Transport Secretary’s statement, announced that the
recently bailed-out East Coast Virgin/Stagecoach contract would
have to be ended within “the very near future”;
Virgin/Stagecoach would be granted a Direct Award to continue
running services on the West Coast; Stagecoach are shortlisted
for the East Midlands and Southeastern franchise competitions.
-
· ’s claim in the House of
Commons on 5th February 2018 that ‘there is no record of any
ban (by Lord Adonis) on National Express continuing to bid for
franchises after 2009’ is untrue.
- · In
fact, following the collapse of the East Coast franchise in 2009
the then Secretary of State for Transport Andrew Adonis announced
that the failed operator National Express would be banned for
future franchise bids. (Hansard column 226 1.7.09).
-
· Section
1.3, c of the Ministerial Code states that "It is of paramount
importance that Ministers give accurate and truthful information
to Parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest
opportunity."
- · East
Coast premium payments forfeited by the government as a result of
the cancellation of the East Coast franchise now total £2.4
billion (2019: £380.4m 2020: £353.2m 2021: £460.2m 2022: £560.4m
2023: £645.4m – source: Stagecoach Interim Results 10th December
2014).
- · On 6th
December 2017 Labour called for Stagecoach to be banned from
running passenger rail operations.
