Brexit could see North take back control in its borders - Yorkshire Post letters

ON Saturday the Yorkshire and Humberside Conservative Policy Forum (CPF) met all day in Leeds to discuss what policies should be pursued in these uncertain times. Several MPs, MEPs and local councillors were present, a proportion of young people and party members from the private sector.

Given the various debates that the CPF had, it was most encouraging to read your main story (The Yorkshire Post, June 10) about the Power Up The North campaign.

At this stage, the two hurdles of the leadership election and the Brexit strategy are taking up all the oxygen of publicity and few politicians are able to give thought to what happens on the other side. Two deductions were put to the meeting: That Brexit was and is all about taking control of our borders, money and laws, and secondly that the surprising vote in June 2016 was a cry for recognition from the regions’ populations which felt impoverished, neglected and undervalued by the elite in Westminster.

If correct, then the Withdrawal Agreement is a dead duck because it does not deliver the controls which were canvassed for. If, however, a new Prime Minister can deliver a better Brexit, Conservative policies can then be shaped to rectify the North-South economic imbalance by invigorating the regions.

The point was made that we already have a vehicle for economic growth in the Northern Powerhouse but that it seems to have gone to sleep, or has not been given adequate powers. The area enclosed by Newcastle-Liverpool-Sheffield-Grimsby-Newcastle should be designated a Free Trade Area And Enterprise Zone. It should have bolder devolutionary powers to set its own taxes, incentives for inward investment, to decide on infrastructure investment, capital expenditure and investment in science and technology education. It should even be able to set its own immigration policy so that we can admit students and seasonal workers on licence through to recruiting longer term employees with appropriate skills to meet industrial, educational and NHS needs.

With its own budget, this region would be empowered to encourage what we need where we need it. The creation of a properly devolved body driven by the private sector and strongly supported by the region’s politicians would prove to the electorate that the elite in the Westminster bubble has listened, and voting decisions would recognise these benefits.