A Croydon MP who said anyone who cannot buy a house in Croydon should ‘get on the trains and up to Manchester’ has defended his comments.

When asked about the lack of affordable housing in London, on BBC’s The Sunday Politics Show, Sir Richard Ottaway said going up north could be the answer to the housing crisis.

He said encouraging people to move to a so-called ‘northern hub’ will eventually reduce the pressure on housing in London as well as boost the economy in the north.

Sir Richard said: “Houses [in the north] are really quite reasonably priced and that is perhaps where we should be, what we should be doing, is getting people on the trains and up to Manchester."

This view has been slammed by the Labour parliamentary candidate for Croydon Central, Sarah Jones, who said: “This yet again shows how out of touch the Tories are.

“To suggest that people move 200 miles from their homes, jobs, friends and family is a real kick in the teeth.”

But speaking to the Croydon Guardian this afternoon Sir Richard said: “The conversation took place around the proposal of the chancellor to build the High Speed 3 train line between Manchester and Leeds which I think, as a one nation Tory, is a really important idea – to build an alternative to the central London hub which will create jobs.

“I related it back to a conversation earlier in the programme about affordable housing.

“If we can get some people in the north of England it takes the pressure off London.

“As a throwaway line I just said people could get on the train to Manchester but it was meant to be part of a serious point about housing policy.”