PM must act to help the North

MPs’ warning over economy

BORIS JOHNSON ignores at his peril the warning from 54 of his own MPs that the North is at grave risk of serious economic damage unless there is a clear exit strategy from lockdown restrictions.

The Prime Minister owes his Commons majority to northern constituencies which turned their back on traditional Labour allegiance at the last election in the belief that the Conservatives offered a brighter future for them.

Mr Johnson must now make good on his oftrepeated pledges to level up the economy, and end the grossly unfair disparities in investment which perpetuate the North- South divide.

The need for him to do so has been made more pressing by the Covid- 19 crisis. As the newly- formed Northern Research Group of Tory MPs rightly points out, restrictions are having a disproportionately severe effect on the people they represent because their constituencies were already economically disadvantaged.

They are also right to call for priority to be given to northern infrastructure projects, since only massive investment can reverse decades of under- funding and kick- start economic recovery from the effects of the pandemic, which has already claimed thousands of jobs and threatens to destroy many more.

The Prime Minister has so far been long on rhetoric but short on action when it comes to levelling up the economy. It is now imperative that Mr Johnson backs up his warm words with detailed proposals and the funding to deliver them.

The North’s 15m residents deserve no less if the crisis Covid- 19 has created is not to turn into an economic disaster. The fact that it is his own MPs who are urging action will undoubtedly carry much weight with Mr Johnson.

But so will the prospect that if the North does not get the help it needs, its voters will be unforgiving at the next election.