Labour peer quits party to run Osborne’s taskforce

The National Infrastructure Commission was part of a four-point plan to be unveiled by the Chancellor in his conference speech.

The move is also being touted as an attempt by Osborne to move the Tories into the center.

The new body’s creation follows criticism that the Davies Commission took three years to recommend a third runway at Heathrow after hearing submissions from hundreds of aviation experts, planning officials and environmentalists. It remains unclear whether the Government will accept the runway recommendation or not.

Lord Adonis was a Transport Minister and later Secretary of State for Transport in the last Labour government.

But earlier this year Treasury minister Lord Sassoon dismissed the plan as an “unnecessary layer of bureaucracy”.

“Working together in the national interest“.

Among the harshest measures in the Trade Union Bill is a proposal to ban workers in key public sectors from striking unless industrial action is supported by at least 40 per cent of all those eligible to vote.

The commission will advise the Government on where and when major projects such as rail links and airports should be built. Such cities represent a power base for the opposition Labour Party, but Osborne – who represents a constituency near the northern city of Manchester – has built a closer relationship with them in recent years.

He also spoke of his pride in the “National Living Wage” – a large hike in Britain’s minimum wage that a few small business owners have warned could force them to lay off staff.

This was modelled on the Armitt commission established by Ed Balls in 2012, to examine how to speed up infrastructure projects.

It is not the first time Osborne has stolen Labour policy.

Lord Adonis said today: “Without big improvements to its transport and energy systems, Britain will grind to a halt”.

And Mr Osborne will announce plans to increase infrastructure spending by £5billion over the course of the Parliament, with cash from the sale of land, buildings and other government-owned assets spent on new projects.

The political pyrotechnics started with an announcement, trailed heavily in the media, of a new Infrastructure Commission and the poaching of admired Labour ex-minister Lord Adonis to run it.

‘So I am announcing… we’re going to allow local governments to keep the rates they collect from business.

“I’m not prepared to turn around to my children – or indeed anyone else’s child – and say “I’m sorry, we didn’t build for you”.

United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne delivered a speech to the Conservatives’ annual conference that made much of the party’s election victory and reiterated that economic prudence was central to its policies.