GOVERNMENT ministers should be banned form Yorkshire council buildings until rail cuts are reversed, campaigners have said.

Yorkshire Party leader Steward Arnold has hit out at indications the electrification of the Leeds to Manchester line could be scrapped, calling it the "great rail betrayal".

The Government's "duplicity" needs a strong reaction from Yorkshire councils, he said.

"Before last month's election Mr Grayling came to Yorkshire to insist that the Tories wouldn't be scrapping their commitments to invest in the north. The Conservatives even launched their manifesto in Yorkshire.

"This plan to scrap investment is serious and needs a firm response. I am calling on all Yorkshire councils to ban Cabinet Ministers from all council buildings and certainly refuse to meet them in their offices in London until Theresa May herself comes to Yorkshire to properly engage with local council leaders. Not only on infrastructure spending but on devolution too.

"When the Government needed our votes they made all sorts of promises. Just a few weeks after the election Westminster is happy to go back to ignoring Yorkshire.

"For too long political leaders in Yorkshire have meekly rolled over in the face of decades of underinvestment, from both Labour and Tory Governments. This has to stop. We say no more."