The Battle for the 'Red Wall' 

By Alex Otway

Interestingly, the Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street endorsed Liz Truss this week. In his Telegraph piece, Street argues Truss can “inject dynamism” into the economy to attract investment and create good jobs. Second, he believes Truss is committed to accelerating the devolution needed to level up. Third, he argues Truss understands the opportunities of net zero. However, Truss has backed fracking, and her proposed answer to the fuel poverty crisis is a moratorium on green levies.

Street’s endorsement of Truss reminds us of how important personal promises and deals are. She assured Street of her commitment to a West Midlands gigafactory, the Midlands Rail Hub and West Midlands Metro, decarbonisation, and the ‘Trailblazer’ devolution deal in Street’s city-region. Ultimately though, there is little that Truss hasn’t promised to deliver. 

As referenced in DevoIntelligence, Truss represents more cakeism, and the inherent contradictions of making all these promises will become clearer if and when she is in Number 10.

Sunak, on the other hand, has already been in a position to allocate place-based spending. Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen endorsed Sunak, arguing he had already delivered as Chancellor for his region, from the Freeport to Darlington’s new Economic Campus. Understanding the relationships between governments and mayors, and the connections between local, devolved, and central government, is crucial to delivering business growth and taking advantage of the levelling up and place agendas.

Both of these Conservative Mayors have independent minds and big mandates. Their voices matter, and matter more than ever in this leadership election. Their regions are both massively important for the Conservatives’ election prospects, and also for a more balanced and productive economy. Whilst they have come to different conclusions on who to endorse, it shows that levelling up will remain high up on the policy agenda.

Red Wall Endorsement Map

By Luke O'Donoughue 

• Endorsing Liz Truss
• Endorsing Rishi Sunak
• Undeclared

DevoConnect’s Red Wall map shows that Red Wall and Northern Conservatives are split on who to support. The Conservatives are a different party compared to a few years ago. It is not just MPs and the large 2019 intake who have influence, but also the party’s metro mayors.

In case you missed it... 

And finally… the view from the South

In a belter of a leaked video, the New Statesman this morning showed Rishi Sunak appearing to boast about “undoing” New Labour’s sins: they “shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas”.

Save the Date

A Question of Sport? An Inquiry into the cultural value of sport to the North’s cities, towns and communities is the Northern Culture APPG’s second inquiry and will build on the findings and recommendations made in The Case for Culture Report which achieved cross-party consensus on the need to level up Northern Culture and deliver greater access, investment and equal opportunity for the North’s rich seam of talent. It provided a blueprint for how the North can rebuild cultural confidence, adapt and become more resilient and develop new audiences for culture.

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