Levelling up has to be back on the agenda , despite economic turmoil - The Yorkshire Post says

It wasn’t the reference to Roman statesmen but instead a lack of contrition. Every outgoing Prime Minister has a right to note their achievements but the very fact that Ms Truss refused to acknowledge the damage that her 45 days in office, the shortest of any PM, had done to the country was tone deaf.

The speech served as a reminder that she received the keys to 10 Downing Street off the back of vacuous promises and economic reality caught up with her administration rapidly.

The new incumbent, Rishi Sunak, must now apply a tourniquet as the country endures a “profound economic crisis”.

But one thing that was notably absent during Truss’s speech on entry to Downing Street, all those days ago, was a mention of levelling up.

Mr Sunak, in contrast, reminded his party that they were handed a healthy mandate based on a policy platform that included levelling up.

The key question is how will the new PM square that with spending cuts. Yorkshire can’t continue to be hobbled economically by regional inequalities but at the same time the country can ill-afford fiscal profligacy.

But perhaps the answer is bold investment from the Government that has positive multiplier effects, as renowned economist Lord Jim O’Neil suggests.

With more and more families staring into the abyss of poverty, Mr Sunak’s pledge to tackle the issues at hand with compassion is also to be welcomed. Ultimately what has been the undoing of the last two Prime Ministers’ is a lack of trust and Mr Sunak must remember his own words that he uttered on the doorstep of Downing Street. He said. “Trust is earned and I will earn yours.”