Sunak ditches 'Northern Oxbridge' pledge

It comes after the Prime Minister also broke his pledge to appoint a Minister for the North when appointing his cabinet last year and in yesterday’s reshuffle, another of the four policies agreed with the Northern Research Group (NRG) of Tory MPs.

Ms Truss during her short tenure as prime minister, appointed Simon Clarke as Minister of the North, and instructed Kit Malthouse, her education secretary, to draw up plans for “Voxbridge”.

Tuesday’s creation of four new departments in the reshuffle also saw Mr Sunak attempt to move Michael Gove, the Levelling Up Secretary, out of the department and into the new Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

The Times reported that Mr Gove declined, in order to remain in post and see out the project he began under Boris Johnson, with a government source telling the paper that the science role, now occupied by Michelle Donelan, was a “more senior role” than Levelling Up Secretary.

It is understood that ministers in the Department for Education are not pursuing the campaign pledge, but are instead continuing the Government’s plans for Institutes of Technology, which are collaborations between industry and education aimed at developing the skills that employers need in local areas.

When asked if the Government still plans to follow through on the proposals for “Voxbridge”, education minister Robert Halfon told the Yorkshire Post: “I’ve not been looking at that. What I can tell you is that we've got these extraordinary Institutes of Technology that we've been rolling out across the country.

“These are state of the art institutes in collaboration with FE (further education) and HE (higher education), there's £290 million being spent on them. 12 have rolled out already, and there's going to be 21 in total.”

He made the comments during a visit to Leeds Rhinos Rugby League club as part of National Apprenticeship Week where the Government announced that young people will be able to use UCAS to search and apply for apprenticeships, alongside degrees.

However, the Government was criticised last night for breaking its commitments to levelling up, as it was urged to give more power over skills to regions like Yorkshire.

Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, said: “This is just the latest in a long line of broken promises on ‘levelling up’.

“This is the Tory pattern – grand promises made to big fanfare followed by an utter failure to deliver real change.”

Henri Murison, Chief Executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said: “The Conservative Leadership campaign last summer saw candidates promise many things - and new vocational institutions were one of those.”

“The North is lucky to have some incredible colleges - we just haven’t invested in them in many cases well enough.

“I would encourage the Skills Minister to support the devolution of funding to areas like Greater Manchester, and ensure areas like here in Yorkshire follow closely.”

Yesterday [Tuesday] saw Michael Gove remain as Levelling Up Secretary in Rishi Sunak’s reshuffle, but saw the department lose its most senior civil servant, Jeremy Pocklington, to the newly-created Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, as well as minister Lucy Frazer, who was appointed as Culture Secretary.

However, last night saw confirmation that the headquarters for Great British Railways will be announced before Easter, with both York and Doncaster among the six finalists to be the home of the new body which would see jobs and investment come to the region.

It comes after speculation that the shake-up of Britain’s railways had been scrapped following the changes in prime minister and transport secretary.