Labour’s plans for New Britain will deliver devolution the region deserves - Oliver Coppard & Tracy Brabin

If the last twelve years have shown us anything, it’s how not to run a country. Twelve years of Tory-led governments have left Britain in disarray, with public services barely functioning, millions of people stuck on NHS waiting lists, a stagnant economy and industrial action every day between now and Christmas. Truly, a new winter of discontent.

Even the flagship Conservative policy – Levelling Up – has fallen by the wayside, characterised not by a redistribution of opportunity to left-behind areas, but by begging bowl politics, broken promises and a Westminster-knows-best approach.

It doesn’t have to be like this. And, last week, there was a glimmer of hope.

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From here in Yorkshire, Labour set out its plans for a New Britain. One where power and wealth were spread throughout the UK. Sir Keir Starmer chose our region to outline the ‘biggest ever transfer of power from Westminster to the British people’.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer (right), former Prime Minister Gordon Brown (left) and Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, at Nexus, University of Leeds, in Yorkshire, to launch a report on constitutional change and political reform that would spread power, wealth and opportunity across the UK. PIC: PA WireLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer (right), former Prime Minister Gordon Brown (left) and Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, at Nexus, University of Leeds, in Yorkshire, to launch a report on constitutional change and political reform that would spread power, wealth and opportunity across the UK. PIC: PA Wire
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer (right), former Prime Minister Gordon Brown (left) and Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, at Nexus, University of Leeds, in Yorkshire, to launch a report on constitutional change and political reform that would spread power, wealth and opportunity across the UK. PIC: PA Wire

Why Yorkshire? Because we have the potential to be the poster child of real levelling up. The region proves that with the right powers in the right places, prosperity will cascade upwards, not trickle-down.

The critics weighed in quickly. Headlines focussed on House of Lords reform, and argued constitutional change was a distraction in a cost of living crisis.

But as Yorkshire’s two Metro Mayors, we know the plans developed by a team led by Gordon Brown are far from a distraction, rather, Labour’s plan offers the only path to a thriving Yorkshire in a revitalised UK.

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We have seen first-hand how all too many of our communities have been denied power, wealth and even life chances. We see every day how poverty and poor health steals the confidence of our people and holds our economy back. And we see how, at every turn, our decisions as Mayors are made harder by the inequality delivered by the Conservatives.

If the central direction from London was going to improve lives, it would have delivered by now. The UK has long been among the most centralised countries in Western Europe.

Labour’s plan shows that there is an alternative: empowered Mayors and local leaders across the country, standing tall, engaging with a rewired Whitehall as equals rather than distant subjects.

This makes economic sense. It is the path almost all our fellow OECD countries have taken over the past few decades. Within the UK, it has started to deliver for Scotland, Wales and London following devolution under the last Labour Government.

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It makes political sense. Local Councillors and Metro Mayors are far more trusted by our communities than Westminster. We walk the same streets, wait for the same delayed trains and cancelled buses, sit in the same traffic jams, and use the same public services as everyone else in our communities.

More than that, we can govern in a way that honours and builds on our local identities, delivering policy that grows out of places like Barnsley, Wakefield, Kirklees or Rotherham, rather than as an abstraction from Whitehall.

And, constrained as we are, we are showing what regional power looks like for our communities. Capping bus fares at £2, creating thousands of new green jobs, and acting urgently to protect households and businesses from the cost of living crisis this winter.

Maintaining the status quo is not an option.

Oliver Coppard is Mayor of South Yorkshire and Tracy Brabin is the Mayor of West Yorkshire.