Have the Tories forgotten levelling up and the North amidst the leadership contest?

Recent Office for National Statistics figures showed that over 12 years of Tory rule much of Yorkshire actually fell further behind London when it comes to disposable income.

Perhaps this was why much of the so-called Red Wall voted Labour in July.

Nevertheless, sitting in the International Convention Centre in Birmingham at the Conservative Party Conference earlier this week, I was surprised not to hear a single leadership candidate mention levelling up in their speeches.

Those words were not uttered once either as an achievement of the previous government or a pledge going forward.

The only real mention of the North came from Tom Tugendhat, who is now favoured to fall out of the race on Wednesday when MPs vote again.

While questions can be raised about the effectiveness of the levelling up project, it is worrying to have so little focus on the North.

Instead candidates argued about the European Convention on Human Rights and the transgender debate.

When I asked James Cleverly about the North afterwards, he said levelling up remained “absolutely key” and was critical of Mr Johnson’s project.

“I think in hindsight the way we did it previously, which was more to do with subsidies and government spending, was effective but you can only go so far,” he told me.

“To really unlock the potential you need to reduce and remove some of the barriers to growth,” he said.

“Reduce the tax, reduce the red tape, unlock the entrepreneurial spirit right across the country.”

To level up the Yorkshire and the North, deregulation can only do so much. As most people know, improving transport connectivity is key to boosting growth and that will require a lot of public investment.

Today, we learned about bus services across West Yorkshire being at risk, while reports have raised the spectre of the Transpennine Route Upgrade being scaled back.

Connecting Leeds to Hull, and everything in between with high-speed services is so important.

While I heard encouraging words from the current Shadow Transport Secretary Helen Whately, her counterpart in the Lords, Baron Moylan, appeared to say there were not enough people in the North to warrant major investment.

It’s important that the Tory leadership candidates don’t forget the promises they made in 2019 and the millions of voters across the North.