‘Northerners have no Brexit fears’

Minister highlights divide between optimistic North and cynical M25 bubble after coast-to-coast tour

BREXIT has opened up a new northsouth divide with workers in the North of England more optimistic about leaving the European Union, a minister says today.

Jake Berry, the Northern Powerhouse minister, spent last week travelling hundreds of miles across northern England meeting with workers.

Writing in today’s Daily Telegraph, he said Brexit holds no fear for workers in the North who “voted for change and are impatient while it comes”.

He added: “Northerners are brave about Brexit and we can all learn from their optimism and spirit of resilience.”

Mr Berry travelled more than 700 miles in his family Volvo estate car over three days last week.

He deliberately left his civil servants in London and avoided the boardrooms of the companies he was meeting so he could speak with more than 500 workers at “construction sites, steel mills, dockyards and offices”.

He visited workers in a range of sites from Blyth Valley, Whitby and Middlesbrough to Hull, Shipley and Rotherham, ending up at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead. Mr Berry contrasted the optimistic outlook he found while “our commentariat, civil servants and politicians inside the M25 were raging about potential sperm shortages, a possible need for the Army to appropriate bacon and other existential crises that a no-deal Brexit might bring”. He described how in “Saltburn, the team at British Steel are more engaged with President Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs than worrying whether rail tracks they have made to improve the French high-speed rail network will still be needed”.

He discovered “port workers in the North East feel closer to Denmark than Westminster. They don’t fear their Danish friends will stop selling them bacon or sharing their donated sperm.

“They perceive a deck loaded against them – geared towards London and the South East. Port of Immingham dockworkers looked bemused as they told me that over 50 per cent of their current trade already comes from countries outside the EU.

“They explained the beauty of containerisation technology, which means customs bears more similarity to a selfscan supermarket checkout than Operation Stack.”

Mr Berry said: “Much of the North voted for Brexit because people there feel a disconnect from what they perceive as decades of London-based, City-centric government.

“Labour have become totally London focused: the politics of Corbyn and his shadow cabinet better represent north London than support the North of England.”

He added: “Coast to coast, I was left in no doubt that the rude health the North’s economy is in is down to the unique resilience of its people: our makers, inventors and disrupters.”

Mr Berry added that “devolution could be the golden thread of Brexit” with new powers handed from Brussels to regions in the North of England.

‘Port workers in the North East … don’t fear their Danish friends will stop selling them bacon’

As our commentariat, civil servants and politicians inside the M25 were last week raging about potential sperm shortages, a possible need for the Army to appropriate bacon, and all the other existential crises that a no-deal Brexit might bring, I took the opportunity to hammer it across the 739 miles of the Northern Powerhouse to have conversations with, and take questions from, more than 500 Northerners on construction sites and in steel mills, dockyards and offices to find out what they want to see next.

Port of Immingham dockworkers looked bemused as they told me that over 50 per cent of their trade already comes from countries outside the EU. They explained the beauty of containerisation technology, which means going through customs bears more similarity to a self-scan supermarket checkout than Operation Stack. They reminded me that they already switch daily and seamlessly between EU regulations and the rest of the world, so they see no reason they cannot adapt calmly to the challenges Brexit may bring.

In Saltburn, the team at British Steel are more engaged with President Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs than worrying whether rail tracks they have made to improve the French highspeed rail network will still be needed. As they see it: “We make them – they can’t. We need them and they need us. And don’t forget the World Trade Organisation steel tariff is zero.”

Cammell Laird in Merseyside has recently launched the Sir Richard Attenborough Arctic Explorer – a contract it won in a global competition. Boaty Mcboatface’s transporter has set a new global standard in its class and the world-leading workers of the dockyard are now bidding in India, South America and the Far East for their next contracts. The long-term sustainability of the yard – a business that has consistently returned profits since its rebirth from administration in 2001 – could of course be helped by more British orders, but these are currently restricted by both EU procurement and state aid rules.

Coast to coast, I was left in no doubt that the rude health of the North’s economy is down to the unique resilience of its people: our makers, inventors and disrupters. Since the Northern Powerhouse was launched in 2014, £20 billion has been added to the North’s economy and foreign direct investment is growing at twice the national average. It was in the North that people voted in their droves for Brexit and they simply don’t buy the story that they didn’t know what they were voting for, or that some sort of Vote Leave Lancashire fleece was pulled over their eyes.

For many, London is a long way away. Much of the North voted for Brexit because people there feel a disconnect from what they perceive as decades of London-based, City-centric government. Labour have become totally London-focused: the politics of Corbyn and his shadow cabinet better represent north London than support the North of England.

Port workers in the North East feel closer to Denmark than Westminster. They don’t fear their Danish friends will stop selling them bacon or sharing their donated sperm. They perceive a deck loaded against them – geared towards London and the South East. They want change. They voted for it and are impatient for it to come.

The Northern Powerhouse is key to delivering this change. Our subnational growth strategy is specifically designed to make all who live in the North better off. Already devolution has seen the creation of powerful metro mayors in Manchester, the Tees Valley, Liverpool and South Yorkshire. Newcastle is next. For the first time in a generation, this government has returned power to the people of the Powerhouse.

Devolution could be the golden thread of Brexit. The people of the North want to see power returned from Brussels to the UK and through devolution to them. Handing back control of funds and powers directly to the North has already been shown to improve transport, increase skills, create better-paid jobs and more secure employment. Empowering the North means the whole UK succeeds.

Northerners are brave about Brexit. We can all learn from their optimism and spirit of resilience.