As night follows day the new Conservative MPs from the so-called ‘red wall’ constituencies in England’s North are getting the jitters that they have been sold a pup by their government and ‘levelling up’ is just a con.
This was not expected to happen until at least halfway into the Parliament but the pandemic has thrown the Government’s plans into chaos. Without the virus the Budget and the Spending Review would have laid out the direction of travel, backed up by copious amounts of jam tomorrow in the form of infrastructure spending, in which the ‘red wall’ areas would have been singled out as beneficiaries.
Instead the virus has only accentuated once again the deep economic divide between England’s regions which was highlighted by the EU referendum. The ‘left behind’ areas saw Brexit as the answer to their problems, Boris duly wooed them in December 2019 and they in turn delivered him a hefty majority leaving him a comfortable five years to deliver his part of the deal – or not. As in so many areas, the pandemic has acted as an accelerant, in this case disillusion with the Government by the new ‘blue collar’ Tories.
So what now? Speaking to the House of Lords economic select committee this week, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said the Government was at a pivotal moment. It could carry on with its centralised response to the virus or it could follow through on devolution, allow localities flexibility in how they allocate funding and plan now for the recovery.
There was little difference between his requests and those outlined in the letter by the 55 Northern Conservative MPs to Number 10 this week expressing concern that ‘levelling up’ was being sidelined. They too wanted a three year Spending Review and a long-term commitment on infrastructure and jobs.
The Tory MPs know that if they cannot deliver what the ‘red wall’ voters expected them to deliver then they are toast at the next general election, especially now Labour has what can be called a leader. Boris knows that if these MPs face oblivion anyway voting against their own government will be their least worse alternative.
And we haven’t even fully got to Brexit yet…
