Wes Streeting says Labour’s rail nationalisation plan would bring down fares

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has said train fares would go down under Labour’s plan to nationalise Britain’s railway.

The opposition frontbencher was taking part in Metro’s 2024 General Election hustings, alongside representatives from the five other main parties.

We asked a series of brilliant questions sent in by readers over the past few days, which tackled the issues you care about ahead of Polling Day on July 4.

Umar emailed us to ask: ‘Why is the cost of train tickets so expensive and is anything being done to bring the cost of these down in due course?’

Questioned on whether Labour’s plan to introduce a nationalised Great British Railways would bring ticket prices down, Streeting said: ‘Yeah, I think it would.

‘We already have publicly owned railways in England.

‘The problem is they’re owned by the travelling public in European countries, whose countries have a massive stake in Britain’s railways.

‘It means that as they’re accruing profits, those profits are being taken and used to invest in and subsidise the transport infrastructure on continental Europe rather than for the benefit of our own fare-payers.’

It’s the first time a member of the shadow cabinet has said their plan would reduce fares, rather than simply bring better value for the taxpayer and limit the likelihood of strike action.

Conservative candidate David Simmonds CBE started a bit of a rammy when he accused Labour of ‘giving the unions what they want’ with the nationalisation programme.

Ian Blackford, the former Westminster leader of the SNP who is standing down at this election, claimed the price of the train ride from Inverness to his constituency had gone down since the Scottish Government nationalised rail north of the border in April 2022.

He pointed to the scrapping of peak fares as a way his party had acted to bring down costs – though this policy is set to come to an end on September 27.

Joining Streeting, Simmonds and Blackford were Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper; Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanski; and Reform member of the London Assembly Alex Wilson – who is standing against Wes Streeting at the election.

The group of six was also asked about healthcare, social care and housing.

Cooper said the Liberal Democrats would stop Carer’s Allowance from eating into a claimant’s Universal Credit after a question from reader Stephanie – something no other party would commit to.

And following a question from Joe, Streeting said Labour would not bring in free prescriptions in England – like in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – due to the cost, despite the party’s Welsh arm bringing in the policy in 2007.

The parties also set out their positions on Airbnb after reader Frances suggested tackling the growth of the short-term holiday let industry might help with housing shortages.

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