Regional redistribution from the wealthy South-East to Britain’s poorer cities, towns and villages is a sensitive issue for Liberal Democrats. When Britain left the EU and English regions and the devolved nations lost their share of EU regional funding (part of the balancing gains to the UK that the Leave campaign successfully ignored) the imbalance of investment and funding between the wealthy south-east and the rest of the UK tipped further. Boris Johnson breezily promised to ‘level up’ the country, raising expectations that were shattered when he failed to follow through. Andy Burnham may be more serious about reviving our poorer regions, and we as Liberal Democrats will have to respond carefully.
I have had a number of difficult arguments with colleagues in the party about this over the years. Liberal Democrats are above all local champions, standing up for neglected communities within the areas they represent. When I and others have argued for larger regional transfers MPs and councillors have reminded us of the pockets of poverty in north and east London, Kent, Somerset and beyond. Our parliamentary party spreads broadly across southern England, but sadly has few champions yet for Lancashire, Yorkshire or the North-East. We’ve already heard some champions of London – not in our own party – protesting that ‘taking money from London’ would be a betrayal of Londoners’ interests. It’s hard for some of our own to resist similar responses.
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