Grimsby has been held up as an example of how the right investment in a town can stop the brain drain.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer joined his Shadow Secretary for Levelling Up, Lisa Nandy, as she made her first pledge in the role - aiming to ensure young people don’t have to “get out to get on”.
They joined business and community leaders to hear of the successes and challenges faced by the town, after Ms Nandy toured Orsted’s £14 million East Coast Hub - home to 400 green energy workers.
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And while the green industrial revolution’s monumental growth in the Humber region excited, issues around multi-generational poverty, minimum wage working dependency, county lines drug gangs and a proliferation of absentee landlords were noted.
Sir Keir said: “The confidence and aspiration, showing people what they can do and understanding the deep-seated nature of the disbelief is very, very important.
“Most important thing is that this has to come from Grimsby, it has to be something which we as politicians aren’t good enough at. We care, but we think sitting in London with a map is the way to do it, and it is done with good intention.”
Drawing on the City of Culture journey north of the river, he said: “Hull did it, and is doing it, Grimsby is doing it, but it has got to come from you so we can take it away and help implement it, not come here and say ‘I’ll tell you what you want here’.
“That’s the difference, we need to do politics differently. If you are going to be able to do what you need to, we need to do it differently. We need to empower what happens here, help decide what happens and find what needs to be done in London to support it here.
“That does mean the next Labour government has to be bold enough to say we will put decision making in Grimsby, we will put resources in Grimsby, the plans come from Grimsby and we support it.
“Power, decision making infrastructure, resourcing, it has to be done that way.”
That had been the plan under the Grimsby Town Deal, the pioneering role given by the Conservatives, however frustration has previously been sounded about how a special relationship with Westminster hasn’t emerged.
Of his take on what he’d heard, Sir Keir said: “There is a very, very strong sense of identity, of place, of pride in Grimsby, and whether it is renewable, or other forms of energy, whether it is what we do with children and young people coming out of school and the support they need, the ideas are all here.
“They need to be brought together and they need the ear of government that actually hears the ambition that is here in Grimsby and matches it with the resource, the decision making, the infrastructure, that will actually help that come about.”
How Sir Keir responded to other key issues raised:
On giving parity to apprenticeship and degree choices, with chief marketing officer of smart eco-tech business MyEnergi, Jordan Brompton, telling how an army of electrical engineers and coders will be needed:
“The support around children - what happens in school is only a small part of what happens around it - and I couldn’t agree more about the non-university skills. We don’t value things equally.
“We don’t need a massive emphasis on not going or going to university. Skills are just as important, just as difficult and just as necessary.
“I feel very, very strongly about that. My Dad was a toolmaker, he went straight into engineering and for the rest of his life looked down upon because he hadn’t gone to university.”
On the devolution model, with Grimsby having a strong identity yet struggling to find the perfect regional development model that suits public and private interests:
“If we are to build on the success, and the history and tradition of Grimsby - a fantastic long rich history - then it is going to require lots of different leaders. I was talking to leaders in their own community, leaders in their own businesses, no one elected leader can do this on their own.
“It is about that collective. It is also about a government that matches that ambition and a way of doing politics.
"For me it is very important when I’m talking about the future of Grimsby to be in Grimsby talking to people here. Not sitting in London saying ‘come and see me, give me your ideas’ . You need to see it for yourself and hear it. I’ve been really energised, there are a lot of fantastic ideas, a real sense of Grimsby having a great future. We just need a government that is going to match that ambition and the next Labour government will do that.”
And if the ‘red wall’ is to be rebuilt, would he like to see Melanie Onn, who was chairing the meeting, back on the benches with him?
“Definitely. She was a fantastic Member of Parliament, and to see Melanie today, doing what she has always done, which is representing her communities, proud, so proud of her communities, shows you exactly what you need in a very good MP.”
On the push to ensure Sue Gray’s report into lockdown Downing Street gatherings is published in full:
“We will pursue it all of the way, after what the country has been through in the last year or two, when people made huge sacrifices, the least the public are entitled to is the full truth about what the Prime Minister has been up to. We will not rest until we get that full truth.”
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