MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan denies going back on h

The allegation was made a few days ago by Independent councillor Georgina Hill, who represents the Berwick East ward on Northumberland County Council.

She reacted furiously after hearing Ms Trevelyan speak at the recent Tory party conference, during which she revealed she was launching a consultation on reforming ticket office provision across the country, pointing out that just 12% of rail tickets are now sold through ticket offices.

The remainder are either bought from machines or online.

However, it comes less than a year after she campaigned against plans to reduce ticket office hours at Berwick’s railway station, and Coun Hill argued her speech amounted to a U-turn.

Ms Hill said: “This is another Tory U-turn. Last November, our MP supported the campaign against a reduction in the hours at Berwick ticket office.

"Now she tells the Tory conference that she is all for it and somehow thinks this will benefit customers.

“While you may predict a continuing, gradual reduction in the requirement for manned ticket offices – the rail operators are cutting the hours too far and too fast. It is disappointing that we don’t have the support of our local MP in this, who is obviously in a position of considerable influence as Transport Secretary.”

Last October, Ms Trevelyan wrote on her constituency website that she was “grateful to the LNER team for taking the time to meet me today, and for hearing me out”.

She added: “I explained why it is so important to have access to ticket staff, especially for more elderly or vulnerable passengers.”

However, the Transport Secretary has said the railways must “move with the times” and argued that it was “not about cutting jobs, but about putting passengers first”.

The RMT has been campaigning against closing ticket offices. In August, general secretary Mick Lynch said that the planned closure of nearly 1,000 ticket offices were clearly about protecting the profits of train companies by further de-staffing the rail network.