THERESA MAY was accused of betraying northerners yesterday after she ditched a massive investment programme for northern England.

The Prime Minister decided to rebrand former chancellor George Osborne’s so-called Northern Powerhouse to the British Powerhouse.

Shadow home secretary Andy Burnham attacked the decision, warning that it would dilute the government’s focus on tackling disadvantaged areas in the north.

He said: “It will be the biggest betrayal of people in the north of England since Margaret Thatcher tore the heart out of many of its industrial communities in the 1980s.”

The original plan sought to inject infrastructure investment into northern cities in a bid to rebalance the economy away from its dependence on London and prosperous south-east England.

However Ms May told key ministerial colleagues at a Cabinet committee meeting on Tuesday that the industrial strategy must reach all corners of the country.

Mr Burnham, who is seeking the Labour candidacy for mayor of Greater Manchester, argued the Prime Minister  appeared to have “changed her tune” from earlier pledges to close the north-south divide.

The Leigh MP said such a change in government policy would increase a “crisis of confidence in our democracy.

“The new Prime Minister and her entire Cabinet were elected just over 12 months ago on a manifesto promise to build a Northern Powerhouse,” Mr Burnham said.

“As the recent EU referendum result showed, those communities feel abandoned by Westminster.

“The right response, surely, is to improve the promises that have been made to them, not abandon them.”

A No. 10 source insisted that Ms May was “extending the Northern Powerhouse idea rather than ditching it.”