Labour rules out 'One Yorkshire' devolution deal

It comes after Sir Keir told The Yorkshire Post in October that Labour would “listen to what Yorkshire wants” when asked about the possibility of the deal.

The position taken by the Labour leader yesterday in a Leeds press conference is set to raise some dissent among the party’s MPs in the region, many of which have called for the policy for many years.

A One Yorkshire devolution deal would centralise powers in a single Yorkshire mayor, rather than the South, West and North Yorkshire mayors that have been created under the Conservatives.

Sir Keir made the comments at the launch of Labour’s 150-page commission on the UK’s future, headed by the former prime minister, Gordon Brown.

The plans, details of which were released yesterday, would see powers over planning, infrastructure, transport and skills devolved to the UK’s regions.

These proposals will now be consulted on by the party before decisions are made over which ideas will make it into the manifesto for the next election.

When asked if this would be through a “One Yorkshire” deal, Sir Keir said: “What I don’t want is the commission as the place where we have an argument about boundaries or new mayoralties.

“You could have quite an interesting academic discussion for five years about precisely how you change all of that, but that’s not how I want to run a Labour government.”

He said Labour would use the powers that were “already there” such as combined authorities and metro mayors, rather than going down the “rabbit warren” of a One Yorkshire proposal.

Sir Keir did however not rule out returning to the idea in the future.

A One Yorkshire devolution deal has been popular within the party for many years and was a commitment in the party’s 2019 manifesto.

Dan Jarvis, the Labour MP for Barnsley and former mayor of South Yorkshire, told The Yorkshire Post that yesterday’s announcement was a step in the right direction, but needed more focus on Yorkshire as a whole.

“While I understand the desire not to get into the detail of geographic arrangements, we need to find a way to harness the economic, social, and cultural capital of Yorkshire,” he said.

“We have a larger population than Scotland, nearly twice the size of Wales and almost three times that of Northern Ireland. We need to continue to explore ways to harness our collective strength.”

John Grogan, the co-chair of the One Yorkshire Committee, said that he felt there is “all to play for” now that the party will consult on the commission’s proposals.

“Now is the time for those who want substantial powers and resources at a Yorkshire level to raise their voices,” he said.

Philip Hardstone, co-ordinator of Democratic Yorkshire, said Sir Keir’s comments were “very disappointing”.

One Labour source said that their preference would be for a One Yorkshire deal “as it has the scale to be really powerful”, adding that they had not heard any details on how the party’s proposals would relate to Hull, which, unlike the rest of the county, does not have a mayoral devolution deal.However, some backed Sir Keir’s approach as the correct one, with Henri Murison, Chief Executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, telling the Yorkshire Post that a “single approach” for the whole county may be doomed to fail.

“Yorkshire isn’t a single homogenous economy, like London is today,” he said.

“An approach to skills or a common bus network that is right for Bradford and Leeds might not be right for Sheffield or its neighbours in South Yorkshire.”