MP breaks ranks to back One Yorkshire
PM’s political masterstroke?
POLITICS: A former Minister has become the first Conservative MP to publicly back an all-Yorkshire devolution deal with powers and money flowing to the region from Westminster.
Ex-Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill told the Government “doing nothing is not an option”.
A FORMER Minister has become the first Conservative MP to publicly back an all-Yorkshire devolution deal with powers and money flowing to the region from Westminster.
Ex-Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill told the Government “doing nothing is not an option” with 18 out of 20 of the region’s councils backing ‘One Yorkshire’.
Sheffield City Region Mayor Dan Jarvis, who was elected on a promise to secure a deal, said the Scarborough and Whitby MP’s backing was “good news”.
And Labour MP John Grogan said Mr Goodwill’s intervention was “very significant”.
The Tory’s comments will pile pressure on other MPs in his party to reveal their position on One Yorkshire and alert Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry and Local Government Secretary James Brokenshire, who are still considering proposals tabled by the council leaders in March.
Mr Goodwill made clear One Yorkshire could include South Yorkshire, where Sheffield and Rotherham currently oppose a region-wide deal, and north-east Lincolnshire if they wish.
The MP told The Yorkshire Post: “It is about having a single figure, a directly elected metro-mayor who will speak for the region and who will also coordinate the work of the local authorities and work with them as a Cabinet to give Yorkshire the same influence that now places like Manchester and Birmingham have with their metro-mayors, who are certainly household names in their own areas and are increasingly becoming national figures.”
It came after Tory MP for Thirsk and Malton Kevin Hollinrake, who favours a series of citybased deals, tried to persuade North Yorkshire council leaders to break away from backing a region-wide agreement at an hourlong meeting yesterday which he described as “constructive”.
“I think there’s a recognition we need to look at all options and particularly when we seem to have reached something of an impasse,” the MP said.
Mr Goodwill dismissed concerns that the diversity of Yorkshire’s economy means it would be impossible for one mayor to run it effectively.
“Yorkshire has a very diverse economic and social geography but no one has ever made that argument to split the UK into
Ministers must decide. Doing nothing is not an option. Robert Goodwill, Conservative MP for Scarborough and Whitby.
North and South,” he said. Any mayor would be forced to represent the whole region and not just their heartland or they will be voted out of office, he said. “The electorate will see through anybody who just represents a small part of the region.”
Mr Goodwill urged Tory colleagues to forget narrow party interest and realise they could actually win a Yorkshire mayoral vote.
He said: “It is time for people (MPs) to put aside some of the pressure they are receiving from local councillors who may be worried about losing some influence and power and understand that by pooling all the resources of Yorkshire behind a mayor we will boost the opportunities in very many districts in Yorkshire.” In a message to Mr Berry, he added: “Ministers need to make a decision. The fact that not everyone can agree on a way forward doesn’t mean doing nothing is an option as we are getting left behind. We are missing out.”
Responding, Mr Jarvis said: “I welcome the good news that Robert is publicly backing Yorkshire devolution It is yet more evidence of the growing support.”
Mr Grogan, MP for Keighley, added: “I think Robert’s support for the One Yorkshire cause is very significant. He has a distinguished record as and most importantly knows how Government works.”
THERESA MAY appeared last night to have pulled off a political masterstroke by securing Cabinet backing for a new UK-European Union free trade area for goods as part of a Brexit battleplan agreed by Ministers at an all-day meeting.
Yet while this agreement buys the Prime Minister some time and appears, in particular, to reconcile the specific dilemmas over Northern Ireland’s border, the full support of her top team will be key in the coming days when the specific details emerge in a White Paper due to be put to Parliament next week.
Not only does the PM still need the backing of her more Eurosceptic MPs, but she then has to secure the agreement of the EU without making any concessions that risk alienating and antagonising the more ardent Brexiteers who appear, already, to be uneasy over the plan’s close alignment to existing arrangements.
With October’s crucial EU summit already looming, Mrs May has very limited room for manoeuvre or negotiation at home or abroad. However, while it appears that the views of pro-business Ministers have been heeded after a succession of leading industrialists put pressure on the Government, the whole Cabinet will now be expected to pull together and provide the leadership that the country has been demanding for so long.
After all, the Brexit concerns expressed by agricultural leaders on the eve of the Great Yorkshire Show are indicative of the discernible unease that has grown right across the country as a result of the policy vacuum.
Ministers have spent too much time fighting their own battles instead of formulating a Brexit strategy which protects the economy and seeks to heal the differences that became so evident during the 2016 referendum. They’ve made a belated start. Now they must finish the job or risk the electorate’s wrath if they don’t support Mrs May.