Proof of Boris Johnson's inability to level up there for all to see - Andrew Vine

The urban decay of parts of West and South Yorkshire continues, and in North and East Yorkshire the picturesque landscapes continue to conceal a story of rural poverty and market towns having their futures slowly destroyed as young people move away because they can’t afford anywhere to live. Meanwhile, a lame-duck Prime Minister promises that he’s busy delivering on his flagship policy of levelling-up.

Doubtless he’ll be repeating that at his scheduled appearance at the first conference of the Northern Research Group of Conservative MPs on Friday, in Doncaster, newly-elevated to city status.

And if, during the same flying visit, Boris Johnson finds time for a campaigning detour just up the road to Wakefield ahead of next week’s by-election, all the great things he’s doing for the North will be at the heart of what he says. Pull the other one, Mr Johnson. The whole levelling-up drive has come to nothing, despite the faith that northern constituencies placed in you three years ago, and the conscientiousness of the 2019 cohort of Conservative MPs for seats that had been staunchly Labour-supporting for decades.

I’d quite understand if those Northern Research Group MPs have a blunt message for the Prime Minister when they see him on Friday.

Unless there is some progress on delivering on the promises pretty sharpish, he can’t count on their support in any future confidence vote, which appears inevitable given the depth of distrust amongst his own ranks of MPs. And there is next to no progress.

Research from Hemsworth Labour MP Jon Trickett published in this newspaper yesterday demonstrated that two-thirds of Yorkshire constituencies have yet to receive funds from any of the Government’s levelling-up grants.

Part of that problem lies in the Government’s typically ill thought-out approach to the north’s future.

Instead of an all-embracing plan to boost the region’s economy – which let’s not forget is home to almost a quarter of Britain’s population – all that has been offered are piecemeal grants.

The Government has set areas against each other in competing for a share of funding, ensuring that there are more losers than winners.

This is no way to go about transforming the fortunes of a vast area that should be a powerhouse of the entire British economy. Instead it leaves a few places thankful for what they receive – even if it is nothing like enough – whilst their neighbours look on in despair having been denied help.

It has become increasingly clear that levelling-up is just another example of the central flaw of the way Boris Johnson operates – to make eye-catching policy announcements that fail to live up to their promise and prove to have little substance when subjected to scrutiny.

These announcements seem aimed at capturing headlines rather than delivering real change for the better.

This lack of substance in getting things done, allied to Mr Johnson’s lack of honesty is why so many of his own MPs tuned against him in the confidence vote – and why he will eventually be ousted by them.

The public perception of Mr Johnson as fundamentally dishonest is so entrenched that he cannot shake it off, even before a committee of MPs rules on whether he deliberately misled Parliament over scandal of lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street.

Limping along as a lame-duck leader, knowing that those on the benches behind him are simply biding their time until the end inevitably comes, he won’t be able to deliver on any of his oft-repeated promises, especially levelling up. The uncomfortable truth is that all of us in Yorkshire – irrespective of political affiliation – have become as much victims of Mr Johnson’s con-trick style of politics as those staunch Conservative members who believed him to be a mould-breaking party leader who could get things done.

The extravagance of his promises on levelling-up has not been matched by action, and given his precarious position, the likelihood of him being able to produce any substantial change for the better in Yorkshire’s old industrial heartlands is remote. His is a hollowed-out premiership, in which self-aggrandisement has taken the place of a realistic policy programme.

Whatever Mr Johnson says in Doncaster, or in Wakefield, does not really matter. The proof of his inability to deliver is there for all to see.