Plans by the Prime Minister-in-waiting to create a ‘Number 10 North’ office in Manchester have been blasted by the leader of the Liberal Democrats.
Speaking during a visit to Torbay, Sir Ed Davey said Andy Burnham’s plans for the secondary branch of the Prime Minister’s Office which would act as the ‘nerve centre of a rewired Britain’ risked leaving rural areas behind.
Sir Ed said Mr Burnham’s approach would mean other parts of the UK such as the South West, the North East, Wales and Scotland would be left out in the cold.
“Avanti Andy needs to realise Britain doesn’t start at Euston and terminate at Manchester Piccadilly,” he said, referencing the rail line linking London and the North West.
“Shifting the physical location of the Prime Minister’s office does nothing to fix the inequalities facing many coastal and rural areas, and instead may create a new bubble of power that actually pushes the government even further away from communities like those in the South West.”
Sir Ed met Torbay’s Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling at Goodrington Sands to discuss what might happen after Andy Burnham becomes Prime Minister, which is likely to happen next week (July 17).
The pair ate ice cream and paddled in the sea before sitting down to discuss the Burnham plan.
“Shifting an outpost of Downing Street to Manchester isn’t true devolution,” said Sir Ed. “For people in Torbay and across the South West, it simply shunts power even further down the line.
“From the Devon coast to Swansea’s streets and Shetland’s shores, people are utterly fed up with being overlooked.”
He said there was a danger that areas of deprivation in places like Torbay could be overlooked as the government’s focus moved north, despite some areas of the bay having some of the highest levels of deprivation in the UK.
“I think there’s a huge danger that those pockets of poverty you see in places not only in Torbay, but also in many, many places around the country are overlooked.
“If power goes up to mayoral candidates who are covering a much bigger area, they don’t really understand local communities.
“That’s why we’ve always been advocating empowering local communities who do know their areas, do know where the problems are, and do know where the poverty is.”
Mr Darling agreed with the party leader over the potential dangers of moving the second ‘Number 10’ office to Manchester.
“I really encourage the idea of getting government from Whitehall into the regions, but moving it to Manchester is bonkers,” he said. “It is actually moving it by train two hours further away from Torbay.
“We need our region to be taken seriously. We’ve got issues in respect of connections to the rest of the country. It is not just a North-South divide, it is equally a South East-South West divide as well.”
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