Neither Liz Truss nor Rishi Sunak will “take their eye off the ball” as Prime Minister when it comes to levelling up the North East, the Chancellor has promised.
The two remaining candidates to take over in Downing Street have been urged not to ditch the Government’s pledges to narrow the North-South divide – with Labour claiming that Boris Johnson’s flagship policy is “dead”. Ahead of the pair clashing in a televised leadership debate on Monday night, Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi defended their levelling up credentials.
Mr Zahawi, who was put in charge at the Treasury after Mr Sunak’s dramatic resignation, said on a visit to Newcastle on Monday that “the mission remains the same, both candidates are committed to it”.
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Speaking after a tour of the Greggs factory in Longbenton, the ex-education secretary told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I don’t believe that children in the North East are any less talented than in Stratford-on-Avon or South Kensington, they just don’t have the same opportunities as some parts of the North East to have that great school with a great teacher. That is why we are making investment in half a million teacher training opportunities – we have 465,000 teachers and I think that investment will really begin to deliver.
“As Chancellor, we have committed to 50 new schools a year this year and next year and we are very much looking to target that towards Educational Investment Areas. But more than that, if you look at the Levelling Up Fund £100m is going into the North East, the work around other funds in transport with the Metro getting new carriages... all of that is stuff we have already done but there is more to go, in terms of the Integrated Transport Plan.
“I don’t think you will find Prime Minister Sunak or Prime Minister Truss taking their eye off the ball, they will be absolutely focused on the levelling up agenda.”
Shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy claimed last week that the “Tories’ commitment to levelling up is dead”, while the North East Chamber of Commerce urged the leadership hopefuls to “demonstrate Levelling Up in action and show that you genuinely speak on behalf of all places and people across the UK”. Harrowing figures released earlier this month showed that the child poverty rate in the North East is now higher than anywhere else in the country – spiralling from 26% to 38% in our region between 2014 and 2021.
Asked if the his party took responsibility for the rising number of North East children living in deprivation under successive Tory governments, Mr Zahawi replied: “The best route out of poverty is employment. If you look at what we have done in the Treasury, with my predecessor and what I will continue to do, is focus on creating an economy that delivers those jobs. We have seen the lowest unemployment in 50 years.
“We have more to do and we are going through a difficult time at the moment. I am completely aware and cognisant of the fact that people are struggling with the weekly shop and their utility bills, which is why we have put £37bn to work in these 12 months to help those families.”
Mr Zahawi had earlier been in Darlington to name the permanent site for the town's Treasury campus, which it is hoped will see 1,100 jobs move out of London by 2025.
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