Region’s Conservative MPs in call for ‘new deal’ for the North

CONSERVATIVE MPS in former Labour seats in the North have written to the Chancellor warning that historic under-investment in the region has left its businesses and workers overly exposed to the economic fall-out of coronavirus.

MPs who form the Northern Policy Foundation think-tank, which was set up last month to help Boris Johnson “rebuild and reshape the North”, have urged Rishi Sunak to use his knowledge as a Yorkshire MP to drive the recovery measures he expected to announce tomorrow to pull the country back from the pandemic.

The letter, signed by Don Valley MP Nick Fletcher and Wakefield MP Imran Ahmad Khan among others, sets out a five-point “new deal” for the North.

Northern Policy Foundation director Tom Lees warned the situation where the North had been “overlooked, ignored, and felt unloved (...) needs to change”.

He said: “Levelling-up the country is essential to the UK’s future success and prosperity.

“The Northern Policy Foundation

Letter from Tory MPs in the North to Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

has set out five pragmatic policy proposals we want the Government to consider as it sets out the next steps of its post-Covid recovery plans, New Deal and Local Growth White Paper.

“This is a golden opportunity to address some of the longstanding structural challenges the North faces and we urge the Chancellor to seriously consider our proposals.”

The suggestions include a shake-up of the traditional enterprise model to introduce “bounce back opportunity zones”, a northern opportunity fund to focus on developing science, research, innovation and high skills, and a northern skills bank to upskill and retrain workers.

In the letter, the group said: “As a fellow Northern MP you know well the issues we face: poor research and development intensity, lacklustre connectivity, below average productivity and fewer high-knowledge, high-value added jobs.”

The plea comes as research revealed the city of Hull faces the worst economic impact and the slowest recovery from coronavirus in the whole country.

Hull’s high unemployment rate before the crisis – 7.6 per cent, twice the national average – and the difficulty faced recovering from the financial crash in 2008, contributed to the findings from the Social Market Foundation (SMF) which Labour MP Emma Hardy said were “deeply distressing”.

The SMF found that while the worst economic shock will mostly be seen in London and the south-east of England, those places will bounce back relatively quickly. But areas such as Hull will see a harsher overall impact.

Hull West and Hessle Labour MP Ms Hardy said without interventions the city risked falling further behind.

She said: “This report is deeply distressing. At the same time it comes as no surprise to me that areas which have suffered the most from 10 years of austerity will feel the economic impact of Covid-19 most deeply.”

As a fellow Northern MP you know well the issues we face.