Why ex-minister’s ‘no plan’ for North claim damns Boris Johnson – Tom Richmond

“I think for some time, there has been a growing feeling across the North that those in Westminster, who are responsible for collecting our taxes and spending our money, have had no real plan to improve our lives,” he said.

He’s not wrong there – this is precisely the reason why The Yorkshire Post, in conjunction with other newspapers, spearheaded the One North and Power Up The North campaigns.

The 15 million people who live and work were fed up with platitudes and broken promises. They sought pounds and pence to underpin new investment. They also didn’t want to be viewed as a charity case by the London government.

But Berry’s criticism – even condemnation – is all the more significant because of his relationship with the Prime Minister and Grant Shapps, the current Transport Secretary and Northern Powerhouse Minister.

And it comes in the week when Shapps and the Department for Transport were accused of marginalising Northern leaders over long-overdue plans to upgrade rail services here.

Berry became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Shapps when David Cameron was in power – and the friendship between the two men has been a strong one.

When Cameron resigned after losing the Brexit referendum in 2016, Berry was a key lieutenant in Johnson’s doomed campaign for the Tory leadership.

He was, however, appointed Northern Powerhouse Minister by Theresa May in the aftermath of the 2017 election.

One of the first to endorse Johnson’s ultimately successful bid for the Tory leadership in 2019, Berry was then elevated to the Cabinet by the new Prime Minister.

This came after the Power Up The North campaign specifically called for the Northern Powerhouse Minister to be given Cabinet status to ensure that this region’s voice was heard at the top table of government and its policy interests championed and co-ordinated.

Berry fulfilled this role with enthusiasm. He visited this newspaper in January 2020 with Shapps who, by then, had been made Transport Secretary and their double act saw them dubbed Westminster’s Chuckle Brothers by some.

That was until February last year when Berry left office after Johnson – for reasons still only known by the PM – chose to downgrade the role of Northern Powerhouse Minister.

But, rather than becoming a constant critic from the sidelines like so many former Ministers sent into premature exile, Berry spent time with his young family, regrouped and set up the Northern Research Group.

And, while there’s no bitterness in his words towards his former colleagues, he does know – from experience – how Whitehall works (or does not).

As such, his conclusion that there’s no “real plan” to advance the Northern Powerhouse needs to be seen in the context of a wider dynamic. For, when someone who was in power does speak out like this, then the Prime Minister and Chancellor Rishi Sunak need to take act and react accordingly, starting with the Budget on March 3.

NEARLY one year into the lockdown – and new evidence about how the most vulnerable pupils have been overlooked.

This was self-evident when Labour peer David Blunkett, who writes a monthly column for The Yorkshire Post, asked a number of specific questions on laptop provision.

A distinguished former Education Secretary, he sought to ascertain the Government’s “estimate” on the number of children ineligible for face-to-face teaching who have been unable to access online teaching for more than 80 per cent of the normal timetable.

The so-called reply from Tory peer Elizabeth Berridge, one of Gavin Williamson’s junior Education Ministers, beggared belief. She ignored the question, and simply trotted out the line that more than £400m is being invested in remote education and this includes “securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets”.

Respectfully, that was not the point. Lord Blunkett wanted to know if Ministers had identified the children missing out on learning – and how the Government intended to help them catch up on lost learning.

Like so much of the DfE’s work under the current Education Secretary, there’s a nagging sense that the department is not on top of this agenda. But one final observation should be made. Though Tory MPs and Government supporters get very tetchy when the Prime Minister is criticised, few, if any, have come out and defended Williamson from his critics. That, too, is telling. And damning.

IF you’re one of the unfortunate people whose home, and business, has been frequently flooded, don’t count on the National Infrastructure Commission coming to your rescue.

It’s 2021 annual monitoring report calls on the Government “to make significant progress on developing its suite of national indicators to measure progress on increasing flood resilience”.

What does this political garbage and gobbledegook – and that’s being kind – mean? People stood on the banks of the Calder, Don or Ouse counting the number of settees floating downstream?

That’s what it sounds like when, in fact, Yorkshire’s susceptibility to major floods is, in fact, a national emergency – a point the Commission and Sir John Armitt, its chair, have failed to recognise.

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