Mary Creagh, the Labour Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Transport has come in for heavy criticism from the region's Conservatives following comments she made casting doubt on plans to dual the A1 and indicating that this would not be a spending priority for a future Labour Government.
She has also been criticised for seeming to confuse Hexham with Berwick-upon-Tweed when referring to plans for dualling the A1; "north of Newcastle up to Hexham".
Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the founder and director of the 'Dual the A1 campaign' said; "When I met with the Chancellor, George Osborne recently, and presented our petition, he told me that he was determined to help bridge the North-South divide and address the disparities between different parts of the country.
In contrast, the Labour Transport spokesman seems to be saying that the North East does not count for very much and they are not prepared to make the necessary investment up here. I am sure this will come as shocking and disappointing news to the region's Labour voters".
Guy Opperman, MP for Hexham said;
"It just about sums up Labour's interest in Northumberland that their own Transport spokesman thinks the A1 comes to Hexham. Never mind them listening to the case for dualling the A1 between Newcastle and Berwick, it looks like they couldn't even find it on a map! The message from Labour could not be clearer, they have absolutely no interest in dualling the A1. Thankfully we have local campaigners like Anne-Marie Trevellyan fighting that kind of wrong headed attitude and making sure this vital issue is no longer ignored."