Exclusive: Key Boris Johnson ally blames ‘dithering’ Ministers for losing North’s trust
Jake Berry, a former close ally of Boris Johnson, cites poor “communications and leadership” for the deteriorating state of the Government’s relations with the North.
He makes the comments in an exclusive column for The Yorkshire Post ahead of today’s Great Northern Conference which will be addressed by the PM.
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Hide AdHis rebuke follows Downing Street’s stand-off with Greater Manchester metro mayor Andy Burnham over the imposition of Tier 3 restrictions in the fight against Covid-19.
Yesterday leaders in South Yorkshire reluctantly agreed to move Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster to this new level of lockdown from Saturday in return for £41m of cash support.
But Mr Berry, who lost his Cabinet-level role in February’s reshuffle, blames the Government for eroding public trust.
He now heads the newly-formed Northern Research Group of ‘blue wall’ Tory MPs committed to holding the Government to account over its ‘levelling up’ agenda.
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Hide AdAnd Mr Berry, a key figure in Mr Johnson’s 2016 and 2019 leadership campaigns, hopes this week’s events represent a turning point after the Government was “forced to listen to local leaders in the North”.
He writes: “The information vacuum coming from Number 10 has allowed high-profile Labour leaders to seize the advantage, and make great political capital from the dithering from Ministers.
“The responsibility for this lies with government – its communications and leadership has been sorely missing in these high-stakes negotiations.”
Mr Berry, whose post as given Cabinet status in the wake of the Power Up The North campaign run by 40 newspapers last summer, urges Ministers to share “full and clear data” with families “in a simple and understandable way”.
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Hide AdAnd concludes that now is the time to accelerate devolution, allowing “locally-elected leaders to have more of a say in how their areas are run”.
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