The emergence of regional parties, such as the Yorkshire Party and the North East Party, came about to address the government’s neglect of these regions. These parties have a specific plan that offers a viable solution to the economic problems of the North.
The question is: why do voters continue to support and vote for the traditional political parties, which have existed for so long and which have continually let them down?
Addressing the North-South divide
No government has ever successfully addressed the North-South divide nor the regional inequalities that have stifled our nation as far back as the Norman conquest. Poverty has always broadly characterised the North and wealth in the South. While there are areas of abject poverty in London and other inner-city areas across the South, and pockets of wealth in the North, The Equality Trust lists Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West and the North East, as the most deprived regions in the United Kingdom. The failure of successive governments to tackle regional socio-economic inequality has continued to increase the divide.
The Margaret Thatcher and John Major governments of 1979–1997 accelerated the decline of shipbuilding, steel, and mining, thus deindustrialising the North. This coincided with the development of financial services that further concentrated investment in the South and accrued economic power to London. Failure to invest sufficiently in these northern regions after deindustrialisation still blights people’s lives today.
The Tony Blair and Gordon Brown years of Labour from 1997 to 2010 wasted opportunities to address the widening North-South divide. Although senior ministers such as John Prescott strongly advocated for regional devolution, resistance from within cabinet and the rejection of a devolution settlement by the North East (notionally because the proposed reforms didn’t extend far enough) derailed any further progress. As a consequence, the regional assemblies initiative came to nothing and the government’s failure to invest sufficiently in the abandoned towns of the North left an ever-widening divide.
Broken promises perpetuate inequality
In 2010, the Conservatives returned to government with David Cameron and Theresa May. The Northern Powerhouse initiative – announced with great fanfare – unfortunately failed to bring any significant benefit. According to the IPPR North, a centre-left think tank, the North has seen an overall £3.6bn a year reduction in real terms since 2010, while the South East and the South West saw a £4.7bn rise.
In 2019, under Boris Johnson, levelling up was the promise. Liz Truss succeeded Johnson, quickly followed by Rishi Sunak, both championing the levelling up policy, purportedly aimed at boosting the deprived regions of the UK. Again, it has failed the North. In the year to 31 March 2022, the South East, the most affluent region in Britain outside London, received almost twice as much money as the North East.
Offering a solution for the North
The North has been neglected, underfunded, and undervalued and – as a result – has underperformed. This sorry situation is not just detrimental to the North but to all of the UK.
The regional parties offer potential solutions. The Yorkshire Party and the North East Party both support the concept of regional assemblies to be led by elected people who know, understand, and care for their part of the world. Their policies to achieve this are well publicised.
However, it is best explained by the document submitted to the then government in 2018 by the leaders across Yorkshire committed to developing a joined-up deal for One Yorkshire that would centralise powers to an elected assembly rather than a South, West and North Yorkshire mayoral policy of divide and rule. An independent economic study has shown a One Yorkshire devolution deal would be worth £30bn a year to Yorkshire. The Conservative government rejected this deal, and a significant opportunity for Yorkshire to kick start the northern economy was lost.
Now, in 2023, the North is still declining economically. It is evident that a centralised system of government is not working for the North, and the regional political parties offer a fresh new alternative.
