Tory HQ move to Leeds must not be token gesture – The Yorkshire Post says

It honours a promise made to voters in so-called ‘blue wall’ seats who put their trust in Boris Johnson last December.

The proposed move also repudiates former party leader Michael Howard who said – infamously – before the 2005 election that the Tories could win power without the North. It could not and today’s announcement by Amanda Milling, the party’s co-chair, is recognition that the Tories – and their rivals for that matter – have been too London-centric with their outlook for far too long.

But Ms Milling should already know – and she previously worked in Leeds – that voters here see through token gestures. And this announcement also coincides with growing scepticism about the Government’s ability to push forward with the Northern Powerhouse and Levelling Up policy agendas.

Even more urgent in the wake of the Covid recession, and crucial to the electoral ‘blue wall’ remaining solid, a series of stalled policies – like Environment Secretary George Eustice’s contempt for flooding victims by downgrading the planned Yorkshire-wide summit – suggests Ministers are increasingly out of touch with this region’s interests.

It is why this newspaper, for one, will continue to press for a dedicated Northern Powerhouse department to be set up in this region – and for other Whitehall ministries to be moved out of London. Only this will change the mindset of decision-makers and senior officials.

But the Tory decision could be a positive move if its presence here, and engagement with the 15 million people who live and work in the North, helps to influence – and change – the thinking of Ministers at the top of the London Government. They can only use Covid as a justification for dither and delay for so long before voters lose faith.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson