Boris Johnson ally Ben Houchen backs Rishi Sunak in Tory leadership race

Mr Houchen, who has been a strong supporter of Boris Johnson, said Mr Sunak had been the only one of the five remaining candidates to engage with his five-point Levelling Up Pledge.

Mr Houchen published an open letter to all the candidates earlier this week asking them to retain Boris Johnson's agenda to tackle regional inequality.

The endorsement from one of the most prominent Conservative politicians outside Parliament represents a coup for Mr Sunak, who is meeting Mr Houchen today at the Teesside Freeport. While Mr Johnson has said he is not publicly back any candidate in the leadership race, it has been reported that he is opposed to Mr Sunak becoming the next Prime Minister.

In a statement, Mr Houchen said: "I'm thrilled that Rishi has got behind my five-point Levelling Up Pledge. During his time in Government, Rishi - alongside Boris - showed unwavering support for Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool.

"Rishi has long been a friend of Teesside and with his unwavering commitment to continue levelling up I am delighted to give him my backing to become the leader of our party and the next Prime Minister of our great nation."

The Tees Valley mayor also cited the former Chancellor's support in setting up the Teesside Freeport and relocating Treasury civil service jobs to Darlington.

Mr Sunak said: "Bringing investment to regions like Teesside was a key aim of my work in Government and it will continue to be so should I become Prime Minister."

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post earlier this week before making his endorsement, Mr Houchen warned the Tory party will be punished at the next election unless the next leader “grabs the levelling up agenda with both hands”.

Mr Houchen, who first won office in 2017 and was re-elected with more than 70 per cent of the vote in 2021, said he fears that his party will come to regret deposing Boris Johnson – particularly if his levelling up policy is ditched or watered down.

“I do think there is a significant possibility that we could regret getting rid of Boris Johnson in the years ahead,” he said. “Since he has resigned, even I’ve been surprised as a Boris supporter that when I walk down the street how many people have come up to me and said they do actually really regret that the Conservative Party have got rid of Boris.

“If people understood places like Teesside, they would be grabbing levelling up with both hands and saying we are going to take all the good bits of Boris and double down on it.”

He said he was disappointed with the candidates who had not responded to his open letter asking them to back levelling up.

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Houchen said: “They are busy with campaigns but they are busy wanting to become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. If you are going to want to do that, then this is an important part of that agenda.

“If they want to be Prime Minister and certainly if they want to win the next General Election, I think it is absolutely crucial that whoever is that Prime Minister recommits to levelling up in the same way that Boris did. If you put Brexit to one side, it was his flagship policy.

“There are so many people in Teesside and across the wider North who had never voted Conservative before but voted so because he cut through on the levelling up point in areas left behind for many decades.

“So it is disappointing. It causes me great concern that they are not replying yet because that would suggest to me this could in theory be relegated down the priority list, which is going to cost us at the next general election.”

Four of the five remaining contenders have signed up to a separate set of policy ideas from Jake Berry’s Northern Research Group of MPs, including promising a Minister of the North.

Mr Houchen’s five ideas range from what it seem fairly uncontentious – from ensuring a Levelling Up Secretary remains in the Cabinet to recommitting to delivering devolution deals – to the more expensive; a call to commit to building the Northern Powerhouse Rail scheme in full after the vision for the route was dramatically downgraded in November’s Integrated Rail Plan.

He said: “The one thing I was acutely aware may be causing some concern with some of the party leadership contenders given they are overly focused and completely het up on tax cuts is the Northern Powerhouse Rail issue.

“It is a large price tag albeit not actually that large because the Government has already committed to the Integrated Rail Plan and it is not actually that much more to do the whole Northern Powerhouse Rail.

“With phasing, even Phase One is due to be early 2030s with the full thing delivered by the early 2040s.

“I thought it was ambitious but I thought it was deliverable.”

One of his concerns about the new Prime Minister abandoning the levelling up agenda and associated projects is that it will lead to growing and potentially irresistible calls for a general election.

“Anybody in politics can see the question will come that if you start changing the manifesto, then we have got to have a general election.

“That was the mandate you were delivering on and if you are relegating levelling up, therefore we should go back to the country.

“You can see that political momentum building if they get it wrong. I can see it coming down the line which is why it is so important people do commit to it.

“It is fundamental if we want to keep those Red Wall seats. I just think it is so obvious to do.

“We’ve had all the leadership launches now and not one of them has actually said anything about levelling up. They have used the term ‘levelling up’ and you think, ‘ok what comes next’, but in the next sentence they move onto something else.

“It is as if some of them are paying lip service to it and that is a huge worry.

“I wrote the letter because I just think it is so fundamental. I have said very openly the person who gives me the strongest levelling up pledge will get my vote.

“That was why I was such a huge supporter of Boris and even today I am a huge supporter of him because he understood this. It is why he connected with so many people.

“He got the North – you can argue the details of whether he got certain things right or wrong but he got it and he got what people wanted.

“If we move away from that I’m really concerned we are going to lose so many seats we won for the first time in 2019.”

Houchen wants to stay as mayor

Ben Houchen says he has no political ambitions to enter Westminster and intends to stand for a third mayoral term.

“The job I have is the best job I have had,” he says. “I have got lots of good friends who are MPs and I do not envy them their role.

“There is more power, more autonomy, more access to the senior members of Government right up to the Prime Minister being mayor.

“I was born and raised in Teesside so it is not as if I’m doing it for a part of the country I’ve been parachuted into.

“I will be standing at the next election here.

“I don’t want to get involved in London politics, it is just a mess at the minute.”

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