Mary Creagh MP, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, responding to East Coast’s latest accounts showing they have paid £220m to DfT over the last year in premium payments, said:  

“When he should be dealing with the cost-of-living crisis by tackling fares David Cameron is instead focussed on trying to hand East Coast over to the private sector, even though it is working well and will have returned over £1billion to the taxpayer by April 2015.

“The Tories have no plan to help commuters. They promised to tackle fares but under David Cameron we have seen stealth fare rises in Northern cities and passengers have been hit with rises of over 21 per cent since 2010.

“Labour’s plan for the railways would tackle the cost-of-living crisis and drive the biggest reform of the railways since privatisation. We will cap rail fares, legislate for a public sector operator, devolve the running of regional and local services and deliver a railway for passengers, not profit.”