Labour to unveil devolution deal for Yorkshire and UK

The Labour leader today in Leeds will unveil the The Commission on the UK’s Future report, ‘A New Britain’ which lays out recommendations on how Labour should devolve power across the country.

The report was commissioned by Sir Keir as one of his first acts as Labour leader and has been headed up by Gordon Brown, Labour’s last Prime Minister, who has been advising the party in recent years.

The report’s 40 recommendations include new powers for local communities over skills, transport, planning and culture, which Labour will now consult on to decide which it takes forward.

Labour says the commission’s suggestions will enables the emergency of hundreds of “clusters” of economic activity in towns and cities across the UK.

The party said that this means that people who understand areas the best will be empowered to transform them to drive a “new pro-growth strategy and make every part of our country more prosperous”.

This will be achieved through moving power out from Whitehall and Westminster, and would see the party send 50,000 civil servants to work “directly for communities”.

The Centre for Cities think tank has identified 90,000 companies in around 300 clusters of industries for the “New Economy” such as life sciences, advanced manufacturing and clean technology.

Writing for The Yorkshire Post today, Tracy Brabin, the Mayor of West Yorkshire, said that the party will return to one of its “success stories” in devolution.

“Labour is no stranger to driving change in this country,” she said.

“Devolution itself has been a great Labour success story, but across the UK we've failed to learn its lessons.

“For too long it meant that everything outside Westminster could change but that the things at the centre could carry on with business as usual.

“Building on the Commission’s work, the Keir Starmer’s Labour government will hand powers to towns, cities, regions and nations that will reignite our economy. And at the same time, Labour will scrap unaccountable ones in Westminster to restore trust in politics.

“Today will be the start of a journey that will see power pushed out of Westminster and standards driven up. The start of showing how politics can once again be a force for good.

“The start of West Yorkshire, and the whole UK, becoming fairer, greener, more dynamic. But more than that – it will be a chance to end that status quo that is holding back so many people in Britain.”

The recommendations include giving new economic powers to devolved governments such as mayors and local authorities.

This will include transport planning, which has seen local areas struggle to take control of poorly performing local services which have seen budget cuts in recent years.

It will also give regions access to an investment bank to ensure that start-ups have access to finance to drive innovation.

In addition, areas will be given more say over training and skills to provide a workforce which is ready for the increase in jobs in areas such as manufacturing and green energy.

This will include devolution of Jobcentres and the devolution of colleges to link training and skills to local employment needs.

Sir Keir will say: “During the Brexit referendum I argued for remain, but I couldn’t disagree with the basic case that many leave voters made to me.

“They wanted democratic control over their lives so they could provide opportunities for the next generation, build communities they felt proud of, And public services they could rely on.

“People know Britain needs change. But they are never going to get it from the Tories. I am determined that, with Labour, people will get the change they deserve.”