Empty talk about new starts and a brighter future won’t cut it in the North - Andrew Vine

For the Conservatives, it’s nervousness that an electoral disaster looms. In some of those I’ve talked to, there is even a grim fatalism. And for the Labour members, there’s nervousness about being complacent their party simply cannot lose.

The nerves aren’t being helped by the prospect of the long haul ahead.

Last week’s hint by Rishi Sunak that the election will be in the second half of the year means we’re in for one of the most protracted campaigns in recent memory.

At least six months of argument awaits, and possibly several more if Mr Sunak goes for autumn.

Expect glad-handing visits to our region by Mr Sunak and his senior colleagues, designed to persuade us that they have always held a passionate interest in the welfare of red wall seats in West and South Yorkshire.

And Labour will be no less visible, with Sir Keir keen to shake off any lingering suspicion that he’s the archetypal London politician who doesn’t really understand the north.

The danger in such a long campaign is that the public gets sick of it and stops listening, partly because trust in politicians generally is at such a low ebb.

That can foster apathy and worse, cynicism, neither of which is in the interests of our county and its future prosperity.

At every election I can remember there has always been a sizable chunk of the electorate that says, in one form or another, “They’re all the same” and doesn’t bother voting.

That disengagement could be especially widespread unless both Mr Sunak and Sir Keir start to spell out what they propose to do for the north during those visits to the red wall.

It is all very well for Sir Keir to talk about “project hope” and conjure up lofty notions of a resurgent Britain of economic growth and rejuvenated public services, but how does he propose to bring that about in Yorkshire’s post-industrial towns and cities where promises of new investment have turned out to be so much hot air?

The same question is even more pressing for Mr Sunak. In communities where councils are barely able to deliver minimum standards of service while making staff redundant, and everybody knows their local hospitals lurch from crisis to crisis as waiting lists grow ever longer, a vision of him being the man to fix things is a hard sell.

Underpinning it all is the state of the economy and the fact that the country is up to its neck in debt.

Whatever Mr Sunak or Sir Keir promise, the demand made of both is how it will be paid for.

For the Tories in particular, even if the March budget sees a tax cut in a desperate bribe to make people feel a bit flusher before the election, those same voters will take some convincing that the party has any new answers to offer to the country’s problems.

And for all of us in the north, there are a whole additional set of concerns that the two men vying to be Prime Minister must address over what they intend to do to end regional inequality.

Mr Sunak will point to devolution deals that have already delivered elected mayors in West and South Yorkshire and will soon do likewise in the north and east of our county, but they aren’t enough in themselves.

The structural inequalities between the north and south, and the disparity in investment haven’t improved in a generation, and solving them is a matter for the government, not the regions suffering unfairness.

Regrettably – and shamefully – Yorkshire is home to some of the most deprived communities in the country and nothing like enough has been done about it.

We worry about that, but do the two leaders?

Both need to realise that if they are to win the votes of the north, months of empty talk about new starts and a brighter future won’t cut it.

We’ve heard all that before. To have credibility, it needs to be backed up with specifics about how a better future is to be secured.

Labour may hope that disenchantment with the Government is enough to propel it into power and that voters keen to see the back of the Conservatives after 14 years won’t scrutinise its plans too closely. That would be a risky strategy in Yorkshire and the rest of the north because we’ve been bruised by too many broken promises.