George Osborne’s Budget has revealed that he has broken his promise to Mersey Tunnel users.
The Chancellor visited the Wirral in the run up to the election and promised that tunnel tolls would be cut and even abolished if a Conservative government was elected to power.
During his visit Mr Osborne said: “They will definitely be cut. I think we might be able to go further, I’m quite optimistic that we might be able to go further and abolish them all together for Wirral residents.
“I would say some of the money, the surplus, being generated by the tunnel operators is not being as well spent as it should.”
Wirral Council leader Phil Davies has now accused the Chancellor of breaking his promise to the region and people who regularly use the tunnels to travel to and from Liverpool.
He said: “The Chancellor’s budget has left Wirral Tories in disarray. Even former Tory candidates are openly criticising his broken promises on the Mersey Tunnel Tolls, now exposed as just a failed election stunt.
“The Chancellor has confirmed what all Wirral residents already knew – the Tories don’t care about Wirral.”
Wallasey MP Angela Eagle described it the Budget as “another raw deal for Merseyside from Tory Chancellor George Osborne”.
She said: “It seems to me that his pre election promise to reduce tunnel tolls was nothing more than an attempt to win votes in Wirral West in a cynical attempt to save Esther McVey .
“It is a broken promise the people of Merseyside won’t forget in hurry especially given that he’s reduced tolls in other parts of the country. It is yet another example of the Tories punishing Merseyside.”
In his Budget speech this week Mr Osborne said: “I’ve listened to the case made by Welsh colleagues and I can announce today that from 2018 we are going to halve the price of the tolls on the Severn Crossings.”