Mansfield MP Ben Bradley urges Prime Minister Boris Johnson to 'level up' the East Midlands

Mr Bradley, who is also Nottinghamshire County Council leader, outlined his mission to create 84,000 jobs for people across the region during Primer Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.

And he highlighted the importance of HS2 – specifically the Toton hub – in helping to make the vision ‘a reality’ and used his question to request an urgent meeting with Mr Johnson.

Mr Bradley said: “We’ve got an incredible opportunity to really level up the East Midlands and create 84,000 jobs for local people, we can’t let it go to waste.

“Our Development Corporation gives us the ability to plan infrastructure and map out development locally on a variety of sites, and in tandem with our freeport proposals can be a hub of national and international investment for our region from major companies.

“We can spread the wealth from these sites around the county and wider region with great infrastructure and connectivity, including road and rail plans that are built off the back of HS2.

"It's not about the train line, it's about stations becoming hubs for economic growth that will create thousands of jobs, and we could have two of those at Toton and at Staveley/Chesterfield.”

In response, the Prime Minister hailed the work of Mr Bradley and said ‘the East Midlands could have no more fervent or effective champion’.

He also congratulated the MP on his vision for the East Midlands freeport and the benefits rail integration would bring.

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