Former deputy Prime Minister Lord Heseltine admonishes Yorkshire MPs who do not push for devolution

Former deputy Prime Minister Lord Heseltine said he would still favour a greater Yorkshire deal, a view he said he knew was “controversial” as the Government preferred smaller city-region based deals.

But he said MPs in Yorkshire should be reminded by constituents of their wishes when lobbying the Government over increased powers.

Lord Heseltine, who spoke at the DevoConnect Northern Powerhouse Education, Employment and Skills Summit last week, said: “When I first went into the House of Commons, the National Farmers' Union could change the mind of government in a weekend.”

He said a government announcement on a Friday would be followed by “10 angry farmers” demanding a meeting with their local MP on the Saturday.

“The questions would start politely and they would get increasingly pointed,” he said.

“And by the end of a very short meeting, someone would say: ‘Mr Member of Parliament, we’ve listened to your excuses, we’ve come to the conclusion you don’t really care about the farming interest in this constituency, and sadly, we’ve had to brief the local press to this effect’.”

“That was how local opinion changed the minds of Members of Parliament.

“And the question I put you is this, why aren’t your Members of Parliament in the House of Commons effectively saying to the Government, ‘we’ve had enough, you are going to devolve power and we’re not going to vote for you unless you do’?”

Lord Heseltine added: “And how long do you think a government could resist the combined voice of the Members of Parliament of your region? I’d give them 24 hours.

“So why aren’t you doing exactly what the National Farmers' Union did to people like me 50 years ago? Make it happen, if you really want it to happen.”

The comments came as leaders in North Yorkshire are drawing up their devolution proposals which will be submitted to the Government.

And Lord Heseltine has hit out at the “personal images and attitudes” which he claimed are holding back a larger devolution deal for the Yorkshire region.

He said: “I would give my eyeteeth to travel the world saying I am the mayor of Yorkshire, what a brand, what a reputation across the world, and that brings Sheffield and Leeds and the Humber and North Yorkshire into one and so it should be.

“All that stops it are frankly the personal images and attitudes and practices and assumptions of the people involved at the council level.”

“They war with each other for historic reasons as they have been all my life, and until you break that you will never get that unity of purpose and that coherence of economic strength.”