LABOUR has backed Hampshire’s multi-million pound roads programme – suggesting the upgrades will go ahead whoever wins the General Election.

Speaking to the Daily Echo Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls threw his weight behind the congestion-busting schemes, saying: “We want to dig some holes.”

After the 2010 election, the incoming Coalition put all major spending commitments on hold pending an exhaustive review, delaying many planned road schemes by many years.

This week, ministers announced what they dubbed the biggest roads upgrade in a generation, a £15bn investment to put in more than 1,300 miles of extra lanes.

It includes improving the A31 through the New Forest, a notorious blackspot, the Redbridge roundabout in Southampton and parts of Hampshire’s motorway network.

The A31 at Ringwood will be converted to three lanes after years of complaints about huge tailbacks.

And a filter lane will also be created, so traffic heading into the city from the M271 will no longer have to queue at the Redbridge roundabout.

At Westminster, Mr Balls was asked if Labour was committed to the entire £15bn programme, if it wins next May, including “all the details”.

Daily Echo: Ed Balls says people on middle and low incomes are worse off under the coalition Government

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls

He replied: “Every time George Osborne has announced his road infrastructure plans I have supported them.

“When he announced them the first time I supported them. When he re-announced them for the second time I supported them and now he has announced them the third time I am supporting them.

“I am not going to renege on that. I am going to do them rather than just announcing them. We actually want to dig some holes.”

Other improvements in Hampshire include upgrading junctions five to eight of the M27 around the north and east of Southampton and replacing rail bridges across roads on other routes, to relieve pressure on the motorway.

M3 slip roads in the Winchester and Eastleigh areas will also be upgraded to allow more vehicles to use them quickly.