Yorkshire devolution: Government's position is clear, the logic is not

Ahead of his first visit to Yorkshire in the role Mr Berry had made clear he was not in favour of a single devolution deal to allow the region to take more powers over its own affairs under a single elected mayor.

Instead, he maintained that the existing Sheffield City Region deal - covering Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster and Sheffield - should go-ahead complete with an election for a new metro mayor next year and other parts of Yorkshire should come forward with their own proposals.

His argument was that the devolution process was about "giving control to cities".

So when I met him today I asked whether, by the same logic, he was ruling out the Greater Yorkshire proposal covering the whole of the region outside South Yorkshire? This, incidentally, is the preferred option of many of the region's Conservative MPs.

But Mr Berry said he was keen to hear all proposals. All, that is, except One Yorkshire.

One of his colleagues challenged my assertion that Greater Yorkshire would cover a significantly "rural" area because most of the people within its boundaries would be living in towns and cities. I countered that the same argument could be made about Yorkshire as a whole.

Mr Berry emphatically denied the process had become convoluted because Government wanted to ensure Yorkshire produced at least one Conservative metro-mayor, pointing to Labour success in mayoral elections in other parts of the country.

But he struggled to explain why, given his enthusiasm for city-focused devolution deals, no progress had been made on the Leeds City Region proposal - backed by West Yorkshire authorities and their neighbours, submitted in 2015.

The Government's position is clear - Sheffield City Region must go-ahead in its current form and now a solution must be found for the rest of Yorkshire. But the reasons for that approach remain opaque.

It is now up to the region's council leaders and MPs to decide their next move.