A top aide to Rishi Sunak claimed workers in northern towns should "accept lower wages" to compete with the South because "London is London".
The Chancellor, who is said to be blocking cash for key "levelling up" projects, has been urged to explain why he takes advice from economist Tim Leunig.
The Treasury aide is accused of seeing the North as "a lost cause" after a think tank report called Cities Unlimited, in which he wrote “the only way towns and cities that are less well connected (...) can compete to attract firms is to accept lower wages".
