Calls to keep levelling up focussed on North/South divide as Downing Street invokes agenda for more of society's ills

Over the last few months the levelling up agenda has been referenced by ministers and Downing Street when looking to address racial inequalities in the context of the Black Live Matter protests, when speaking about disability rights, tackling antisemitism, and now to being woke.

During a Westminster briefing today the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman was asked whether the Prime Minister considered himself “woke” following Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy praising new US President Joe Biden as a “woke guy” who defends trans rights and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Mr Johnson was later asked if he considered Mr Biden to be woke – defined as being alert to societal injustices – and said: “There’s nothing wrong with being woke.”

But questioned further on the topic today, Mr Johnson’s spokesman said: “You would have to define that for me, you've got the Prime Minister's views on what he believes, specifically on his agenda to level up across the country, and make sure that everybody has the opportunity to succeed.”

Informed that the term “woke” was referring to social attitudes, he said: “You've heard the Prime Minister talk about such issues previously, but a key plank of this Government’s agenda is to level up across the country to ensure that everybody, wherever they come from, can reach their potential and ensure there is equality for all.”

He said: “The Prime Minister is clear of his belief that we need to ensure that everybody has the same opportunity.”

And added: “I’m not sure what you mean specifically by being ‘woke’ but, as I say, you’ve got what the Prime Minister said on issues like this previously.”

The levelling up agenda was touted during the December 2019 election as a way to close the North/South divide and is credited with winning the Conservatives many seats in the North.

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post’s political podcast, Pods’s Own Country, in an episode to be released tomorrow, former head of the civil service Sir Bob Kerslake said the term needed a clear definition - and should be kept to addressing regional inequalities.

He said: “I think that [including other issues] is a huge risk for the Government. If it becomes a catch-all phrase, people will start to become very cynical, they'll spot that, and they'll not believe what Government says on these things.”

Sir Bob, who chairs the UK2070 Commission into regional inequalities, said: “I personally believe they need to keep it at the very specific agenda of regional spatial inequalities, the North/South divide, as many people call it, I think it's got to stay in that space, because that's at the core of our inequality in this country, [although] it is not the only inequality we have, we have huge other differences as well.

“We're a very unequal society in many ways. But I think if levelling up was going to mean anything is got to be tackling the huge spatial imbalances.”

And he added: “Crucially, you need every bit of Government to be clear what the goal is, and then work towards it. Otherwise, what you risk is a sort of well intentioned, but very vague aspiration and everybody then says what they're doing anyway is levelling up. I've seen it many times in Government, every action you take, you just put the words levelling up in and that's supposed to add to the strength of it.

“There's got to be a plan. You've got to know what you're trying to achieve. You've got to evaluate how far you've got.”

The Prime Minister’s spokesman declined to say whether a concrete plan would be provided on levelling up, but when questioned on the definition of the phrase he said: “Again I would point back to the work that Government has already undertaken to level up across the country.

“The Prime Minister has set out his ambition with regard to this on a number of occasions, the investment we've made in transport across the country and other areas demonstrates our focus remains on levelling up.”

He said: “It is and remains his ambition to ensure that we level up across the country, and I would point to the measures we've introduced and the investments we've made since the Prime Minister became Prime Minister in December 2019 as evidence of our continued commitment to this.”

Pushed on examples he added: “Our investments in hospitals, our investment in schools. The Prime Minister set out his agenda in this regard on a number of occasions.

“We want to level up across the country, and to ensure that we can provide good public services, good education for everybody, and to ensure that there is equal opportunity for people to reach their potential.”