Region is urged to ‘get real’ on plan for devolution

Compromise or lose out, warns former Minister

FORMER TREASURY Minister Lord Jim O’Neill has said it is time for Yorkshire to “get real” on devolution, warning that the region would lose out to the likes of Manchester if the failure to come to a political compromise was not addressed.

Lord O’Neill, who served in both David Cameron and Theresa May’s governments before resigning last year, said that recent political and social shocks seen in the UK should focus the minds of the region’s MPs to throw off partisan politics in favour of doing what is right for the region. Speaking exclusively to The

Yorkshire Post, the crossbench peer laid the blame for the absence of a deal for the Leeds City Region at the door of the area’s Conservative MPs and said plans for a Yorkshire-wide mayoral setup were not deliverable, with city region deals for Sheffield and Leeds the only viable option.

“People need to put their selfreservation and political prejudices aside and start doing more of what is the right thing to do,” he said. “Whether they will or not I don’t know but, as we have just seen broadly for the Tory machine they have just had a thumping wake-up call about many matters in life. You should never let a crisis go to waste. So in my opinion it is time for Yorkshire to get real on this topic.”

Last month saw mayors elect- ed for the first time in the city regions of Manchester, Liverpool, Tees Valley and Birmingham. The Sheffield city region deal had initially been delayed for a year and has now run into difficulty after Chesterfield withdrew its support. A deal for the rest of Yorkshire remains stuck in a quagmire of political intransigence.

Expressing his frustration about the inability of politicians in the Leeds City Region to put forward a deal, Lord O’Neill said he hoped unpredictable events such the Brexit vote and loss of the Conservative majority at the election could shift political opinion and engender a more bipartisan approach to decision-making.

“As we are starting to see some signs on the whole Brexit matter, and because this Tory Government is re-elected in minority, they may have to think through a far more cross-party collaborative approach than certainly they were planning to do when they called the election.

“From my own personal experience, the reason why the Leeds city-based thing never really got anywhere was because the Tory MPs in Yorkshire refused to support the idea and said they would oppose the Bill. They can still do that, and no doubt right this minute most of them would think that. But they, like everyone else one week after this remarkable election, need to reflect back as to what’s happened.

“When are any of them going to stand up and really push for what needs doing and not get stuck in some local politics?”

ONE YEAR after Britain took the momentous decision to vote to leave the European Union, Theresa May’s embattled government has two primary objectives – day-today survival after losing its Commons majority and the implementation of Brexit when there is no unanimity on the way forward.

This was self-evident with this week’s Queen’s Speech. Even if a much diminished Mrs May wins sufficient support in the Commons next Thursday, the legislative programme will be dominated by Brexit with other policy issues taking their chance after much of the Tory manifesto had to be jettisoned.

And, given the very likelihood of Westminster and Whitehall grinding to a halt, it’s even more important that Yorkshire heeds the advice of Jim O’Neill, a much-respected economist and former Treasury minister, by seizing the initiative on regional devolution so this county can finally start to shape its future direction.

Instead of blaming Ministers or looking for reasons not to go ahead with a particular structure, the onus, as Lord O’Neill says so correctly, should be on this region’s leaders reaching an agreed position – they have had long enough to do so – and then making the necessary case to the Government.

This is what has happened in rival regions like Greater Manchester and the Tees Valley where directly-elected mayors are already selling their respective areas to international investors and their like while coordinating a response to those issues, like transport, which underpin future economic growth.

And given that elected mayors is the Government’s preferred leadership model because postholders can be held to account by voters, Yorkshire’s leaders need to recognise this. The longer they allow this impasse to remain, the greater the likelihood that this region will miss out on both investment and influence.