There are claims that Michael Gove has "unfinished business" with Liverpool after he was reappointed to the role of Secretary of State for Levelling Up.
Mr Gove has returned to run the department that oversees the work of local government and housing having been dramatically sacked by Boris Johnson in the summer as his government was falling apart.
In a sign of the chaos that has engulfed the Conservative Party since then, there have been two further Levelling Up secretaries in the short time before Mr Gove was reappointed by Rishi Sunak yesterday.
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The first was Greg Clark, who made a major decision regarding the future of Liverpool Council. The troubled council has been overseen by government commissioners since June 2021 because of the failings exposed by a major inspection and Mr Clark announced in August that he would be expanding this intervention into an effective full takeover of the city council.
Mr Clark - who was appointed to the role by Boris Johnson after he sacked Mr Gove - also announced the creation of a new Strategic Futures board for Liverpool - headed up by Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram - with a mission to map out the city's future.
These were hugely significant decisions for Liverpool and its council - but Mr Clark was removed from his post a few weeks later by incoming Prime Minister Liz Truss. She installed Simon Clarke as the new Secretary of State for the department.
As was recently reported by the ECHO, the chaos that surrounded the brief premiership of Ms Truss had a knock on impact for Liverpool. There was no further communication from the department to the council about the planned intervention and the strategic panel has yet to have its terms of reference signed off.
The focus is now back on Mr Gove and what he will do next. Liverpool Lib Dem opposition leader Cllr Richard Kemp said the returning Secretary of State has "unfinished business" with Liverpool and its council.
He said: "In his last incarnation as a cabinet minister, Mr Gove received an update letter from his appointed commissioners in the city. We have yet to receive a final response from the Government which indicates the direction that the commissioners and the council must take. At present we are working on assumptions about this which may or may not be true.
"The recent decision to award Liverpool the Eurovision contest provides at a lower level the same opportunity to promote the positive values of the city as the European Capital of Culture did 20 years ago. It gives us the opportunity to reset our relationship with a highly sceptical government."
Cllr Kemp urged Liverpool Mayor Joanne Anderson to invite new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Mr Gove to Liverpool to see for themselves what the people of the city are facing.
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