East West Rail is “critical” if Cambridge is to continue to compete on the global stage, according to rail minister Huw Merriman. But the city’s Labour MP has slammed the government for its lack of a joined-up approach over Cambridge’s “long-standing infrastructure problems”. Mr Merriman said the £7bn railway line was needed to deliver a workforce to the city because otherwise “we will not see the pioneering scientific and bio-health developments that we see from Cambridge”. His comments came as he took questions in the House of Commons on the railway, which will connect Cambridge and Oxford w…