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DAVID CAMERON could only blush yesterday as Labour MPs scored a symbolic a victory over his government’s “dogmatic” privatisation of East Coast.
The Tory PM was waiting on the front bench for a different debate when speaker John Bercow announced the result of a vote on Andy Sawford’s backbench Bill to overturn the ban on publicly run railways.
And he was visibly embarrassed as Mr Sawford strolled past him to present his Bill to the Commons clerk after it was passed with a majority of 158.
MPs gave their backing to the Bill following revelations that £6 million of public cash was set to be spent on putting the East Coast up for sale next year.
“That’s money that would be better spent imrpoving the service rather than satisfying the Tory obsessions with privatisation,” Mr Sawford said.
The Corby MP contrasted that waste with the service East Coast has provided to his constituents, which includes a £3.3m upgrade of Petebrough railway station.
And he said: “Passengers and employees, who have worked to make East Coast a success in public hands, will not be able to understand why the operator is now prevented from challenging to take on other lines — let alone run the East Coast line.”
In response, Tory MP Martin Vickers claimed “the privatised industry is actually a success.”
But a spokesman for the TSSA union said his rant showed he has “no idea about rail.”
He said on Twitter: “Tory Martin Vickers MP making idiotic comments, even attacking the name of Department for Transport’s rail company.”
