Michael Gove has urged his Tory colleagues to reaffirm their commitment to levelling up, amid reports the project could be shelved when Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street.
The flagship regeneration policy was meant to form the central theme of Mr Johnson’s premiership, but with his exit many fear the plan could be quietly ditched.
The phrase has barely featured in the Tory leadership race, with the debate instead focusing on tax cuts and defence spending.
Read more: Urgent warning issued over open water swimming after four people die
Mr Gove, who was sacked from the Department for Levelling Up after urging Mr Johnson to resign, told a think tank event that whoever replaced the Prime Minister needed to continue with his plan.
He said: "Forgive me for using this phrase, because I know that many people didn't like it, you have to be committed to levelling up.
"One of the fundamental structural problems in the United Kingdom is geographical inequality.
"It's a social mission, because there are so many people in this country in poor schools without the skills they need, without the opportunities to succeed.
"But it's also an economic mission, because if different parts of United Kingdom are all performing as effectively as the South East and London, then we would be the strongest economy in Europe."
Mr Gove later admitted that the Government is failing to deliver “certain essential functions” like swiftly providing driving licences and passports.
He told a discussion for the Policy Exchange: “My view is, the state should do fewer things better, we need a strong and effective state, limited in what it chooses to do.
“I believe that there are certain essential functions that the state needs to do better, and which we fail to deliver at the moment. There are some core functions, giving you your passport, giving your driving licence, which is simply at the moment not functioning.
“But there are also broader, huge, like defence procurement, or the way in which we invest in science and research and development, where a variety of bureaucratic impediments have accreted over time.
“And we are no longer providing people, either with the efficient delivery of services or the effective focus on what the state should do.
“I think that’s because we have become a Government and an administration, that is knocked off course, by powerful stories that are told by people with a mission and our own sense of mission has not been strong enough to resist that.”
Read next:
- Huge search launched to find male seen in Northumberland river
- North East hour-by-hour weather forecast as heatwave brings scorching temperatures
- Met Office won't rule out another heatwave after July's extreme temperatures drop
- Northumberland blood scandal victim welcomes Andy Burnham's evidence over 'criminal cover-up'
- Two Cramlington triplet sisters living the dream after giving birth to daughters just weeks apart
