PM to set out vision to level up the North

Johnson in bid to win back wavering Tory MPs with key speech in Yorkshire

What I want to see now is a rebuilding of trust from the Prime Minister. Andrew Jones, MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough.

BORIS JOHNSON will set out his pitch to win back the support of his wavering northern MPs with a crunch speech on his vision for the next stage of levelling up in Yorkshire next week.

The Prime Minister will be addressing the first conference of the Northern Research Group of Tory MPs in Doncaster on Friday at an event also open to Tory Party members.

It follows a bruising week for Mr Johnson which began with 40 per cent of his own MPs voting that they had no confidence in his leadership.

One of the Yorkshire MPs who voted against the Prime Minister on Monday said Mr Johnson must now show a renewed “zeal” for delivering on the policies set out in the Conservative manifesto if he wants to win back the support of rebellious Tory MPs.

Andrew Jones, the MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, said his own vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister was the first time in two decades in politics that he has rebelled against his own party.

Mr Jones told The Yorkshire Post that Tory MPs were surprised at the size of the rebellion against Mr Johnson on Monday, as 148 of them voted against him, but said he and others would accept the Prime Minister’s victory.

“What I want to see now is a rebuilding of trust and rebuilding of confidence from the Prime Minister,” he told The Yorkshire Post. “That will mean focus on the delivery of policy.”

Mr Jones said Mr Johnson’s role in delivering the vaccine programme and spearheading much of the response to supporting Ukraine after the Russian invasion “shows he has got the capacity to get things done in a remarkable way”.

“We now need to see that happen in a consistent way across all policy areas,” he said.

“The questions we have got now are huge.

“We haven’t had the problem of inflation in our economy for so long – most people have never seen it before. We could be facing a period where we are dealing with that old 1970s word, stagflation.”

The event at Doncaster Racecourse, which is called Levelling Up The North, will also include speeches from Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen and Northern Research Group (NRG) chair Jake Berry, as well as Don Valley MP Nick Fletcher.

An NRG source told The Times they are hoping for new policy announcements from the Prime Minister at the event.

They said: “After the week the PM has had, and looking to the months ahead, he needs to be showing his northern MPs that he cares about them. For the most part we’ve supported him this week, but we need something to take on the doorstep to tell voters.”

Former Brexit Minister Lord David Frost said yesterday that Mr Johnson has until the autumn to set out a clear Conservative vision for the future or face being ousted by his own MPs. He told The Daily Telegraph that the Government needed a clear “Conservative plan” based on “freedom and individual liberty not collectivism”.

Comparing crisis-hit Downing Street to “the cockpit of a crashing airliner” where “the dashboard lights are all flashing red”, Lord Frost said: “The Government has to decide which problems must be dealt with now and which can be left until later.”

He said the Ministers should focus on reversing tax increases, “credibly” committing to future cuts, slashing VAT on energy bills, opening up fracking and committing to a Cabinet reshuffle. Lord Frost said: “Many of us still want him to succeed and will support him if he shows a sense of purpose. But he has to show things will be different now.”

Mr Johnson’s speech will come just days before two key by-elections in Tory-held seats on June 23 – one in Tiverton and Honiton in Devon and the other in Wakefield.

Pollsters have suggested Labour will win Wakefield by as much as 20 percentage points. Labour candidate Simon Lightwood said he was “taking nothing for granted” but added “the national stuff that’s happening the Prime Minister does come up in a very negative way” on doorsteps.

Tory candidate Nadeem Ahmed said: “It’s going better than I would have expected at this stage. We’re not seeing the 20 point lead (for Labour) that people are claiming.”