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WATCH: ‘Change is coming!' Labour mayor defends delayed Northern rail and investment plans
Sep 28, 2025
South Yorkshire Labour Mayor Oliver Capaldi has told GB News' Katherine Forster that "change is coming" in a chat at the Labour conference. He defended the Government’s delayed Northern rail projects and investment plans, insisting the money will make a real difference. Mr Coppard acknowledged frustrations in the North but stressed that careful planning and costed projects take time. He promised communities would see the benefits in their pockets and daily lives, despite the wait.WATCH THE CLIP ABOVE FOR MORE
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0:00
Yes, good afternoon Dawn from Liverpool and Labour Conference
0:06
Yes, I'm joined now by Oliver Coppard, who is the Mayor of South Yorkshire, the Labour Mayor of course
0:11
Thank you very much for talking to us on GB News. Can we start with the comments that the Prime Minister just made this morning
0:19
where he called reforms in definite leave to remain, proposals racist and immoral
0:26
Do you think that is a correct description? If I'm honest, I haven't studied their policy proposals in detail
0:32
so I wouldn't be able to tell you exactly what I think of it, other than what I have seen looks just unworkable
0:37
I just can't see how they're going to deliver what they say they're going to deliver. They're very good at coming up with eye-catching policies
0:43
that get a lot of attention from people like you and, to a certain extent, people like me. But it's also got to be workable
0:48
And from what I've seen, I don't think it is. But Labour have now had over a year in office
0:53
You promised change. at the moment most people feel that they're not getting that change
1:00
They're not seeing those improvements. The Prime Minister today saying that he can turn things around
1:07
How are you going to do that realistically? Because the poll ratings are pretty catastrophic for you at the moment
1:11
What I see in my community and the whole of South Yorkshire, some of the poorest parts of Northern Europe
1:15
certainly poorest parts of this country, Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster and Sheffield is change
1:19
We're getting a load more money for transport, for instance. So from 2027, I recognise a while away
1:24
we'll be getting £1.5 billion to invest in our public transport network
1:28
Now, I've lived in South Yorkshire the vast majority of my life. I've never known us get that amount of money for public transport
1:35
When it comes to things like investment in businesses, in skills, in housing and a bunch of other things besides
1:40
we're getting unprecedented amounts of money. Now, those things take time, right
1:45
So the government's got to make sure that their plans are right, then they've got to give us that money, and then we've got to make sure that that money is doing its work in our communities
1:51
These things take time but we certainly getting much more than we ever did under the stories in places like south yorkshire but northern powerhouse rail for an example 16 million people in the north have
2:03
had these big promises fast rail from liverpool to hull increased capacity and to south yorkshire
2:08
and it never happens and we were expecting an announcement on fast rail between liverpool
2:15
and manchester to happen at this conference it sounds like it's not happening and we're now in
2:20
a situation like in Manchester two years ago where Rishi Sunak stood in a former railway
2:27
station in Manchester and told Manchester they're not getting the leg of HS2 and now here we are in Liverpool
2:32
and we're not hearing that announcement that's so important for Liverpool. Isn't this a bit of deja vu? I mean
2:38
the North's being let down again surely? No, I think if you take your question at face
2:42
value, which I do, what we have in our communities, in my community, in South Yorkshire
2:46
is a public, myself included quite honestly, that is really sceptical about big rail announcements
2:52
So when a government, any government, comes out and says, we're going to spend X billion pounds on these projects
2:57
I look at that sceptically and I know the public do too. So what I think the government are right in doing is saying
3:02
look, we're going to dot the i's and cross the t's before we do what Rishi Sunak did
3:06
which is come out at a Tory party conference and say, we're going to do all this stuff, but didn't have a clue how to pay for any of it
3:11
So this government has to get that right. I'm much more than prepared to wait a little bit more time
3:16
if the plan that they come out with is workable and it is costed and it's achievable quickly and it's ambitious
3:21
And if those things are done, then I'm more than happy for this government to take a little bit more time to get that right
3:26
So just a quick answer, please. You believe that the government can and will deliver for the North
3:30
before the next election in a significant way? The government are already delivering for the North
3:35
Through people like me and mayors across the North, we're getting more money and investment than we ever used to under the Tories
3:40
And that's going to come through and be in people's pockets, in people's lives in the not-too-distant future
3:44
These two things take time. It is frustrating for me and for my community. but we're going to change people's lives, we're going to change our communities for the better through this government
3:52
Oliver Copper
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