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By ROB PARSONS - August 2 2022
It's not often you get Tory Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen and Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner speaking with one voice on an issue.
But the pair - two of the North's best-known politicians on opposite sides of the political spectrum - were this morning united in opposition to Liz Truss 's plan to save taxpayers' money by ending national pay deals for civil servants' pay.
The Leeds-educated Tory leadership candidate said yesterday she wants to link civil servants' salaries to living standards where they work, meaning similar jobs could have different salaries depending on location.
Ms Truss, the favourite to be the next Prime Minister, says the scheme could be rolled out to other public sector areas, saving £8.8bn a year. But as the BBC reports this could create a situation where nurses, police and teachers would be paid less in Sunderland than ones in Surrey.
This morning Mr Houchen, a prominent backer of Ms Truss's Tory leadership rival Rishi Sunak, said he was "actually speechless" at the plans.
And not long after The Northern Agenda newsletter went out she was backtracking. Her team said "there will be no proposal taken forward on regional pay boards for civil servants or public sector workers".
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He tweeted : "There is simply no way you can do this without a massive pay cut for 5.5m people including nurses, police officers and our armed forces outside London. So much that we’ve worked for in places like Teesside, would be undone."
Ms Rayner, MP for Ashton-under-Lyne described it as "a race to the bottom that would cut the pay of school and NHS workers outside London, widening the divide and punishing the North."
The Truss camp has argued that introducing regional pay would stop the public sector crowding out the private sector in places where private businesses can't compete with public sector pay.
But Institute for Government programme director Alex Thomas said the £8.8 billion proposed for savings from regional pay bargaining would not come from Whitehall.
He argued the “complicated and controversial” move would mean nurses and teachers being paid less or receiving slower pay rises than others, adding: “This is not war on Whitehall, it’s more like war on Workington [in Cumbria]”.
Hague lends hand to 'icon' Sunak as he trails in Tory leadership race
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It's been a tough week for Rishi Sunak in his bid to win the Tory leadership race, with polls showing him trailing Liz Truss as his rival wins a succession of prominent supporters .
But the former Chancellor can still rely on the support of ex Tory leader William Hague , his predecessor as MP for Richmond in North Yorkshire who yesterday urged party members to back the “highly disciplined” and “rational” Mr Sunak in an almost six-minute long video message.
Rotherham-born Lord Hague pleaded with the grassroots, arguing his successor is the best choice for PM. In a video message the ex-Tory leader described how Mr Sunak, who was “new to farming issues”, “not local” and from “an ethnic minority”, ended up replacing him as MP when he did not stand for re-election in 2015.
The video also featured Richmond constituents, with one saying: “He (Rishi Sunak) is an icon up here.”
Meet the businessman Boris Johnson calls 'that bloody cheese man'
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His company recently romped home with five medals, including a gold, at the International Cheese and Dairy awards.
But Simon Spurrell, managing director at the Macclesfield-based Cheshire Cheese Company , says his business lost £250,000 as a direct result of Brexit - and warns Covid has left the UK with a huge cheese shortage.
He says the UK government’s failure to negotiate a health certificate hit his business overnight as soon as the UK withdrew from the EU, meaning it's now impossible to sell their cheeses on a business to consumer basis online to their EU customers.
He told CheshireLive : “Our consumer market was destroyed overnight as we used to sell to Italy, France and Germany in particular. That went completely, with 60 parcels returned in January of the first week.
“I appeared many times on German national TV and was told by several politicians that Boris Johnson referred to me as ‘That Bloody Cheese Man’. If nothing else in life, I've achieved annoying him - so I am very proud of that one.
“We sell to 650 shops across the United Kingdom. We used to sell across Europe to a lot of countries but Brexit has stolen that from us, we used to sell to nine countries. Post-Brexit we now sell to six countries including Canada, which is now our biggest export market."
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In other food news, Yorkshire grocer Morrisons has launched a line of “planet-friendly” eggs from hens fed on insects reared on food waste.
The supermarket said it is the first to launch a line of carbon-neutral eggs, which are the first product as part of the retailer’s drive to be directly supplied by zero emission British farms by 2030.
The free range eggs will initially be available in 50 Yorkshire stores, and Morrisons’ new lower environmental impact store in Little Clacton, Essex, with a national rollout planned for 2023. They cost 30p each or £1.50 for a pack of six.
'Unfinished business': Greg Clark sets out devolution plans for North
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Born in Middlesbrough in 1967, Levelling Up Secretary Greg Clark told assembled political leaders in York yesterday that he has the historic North Riding on his birth certificate.
And after signing a landmark devolution deal for York and North Yorkshire yesterday, he told The Northern Agenda how he now wanted to "do as many as possible", with the North East and Hull and the East Riding on his list.
Mr Clark, who took over from Michael Gove after he was sacked last month, said he regarded the task of finishing devolution deals started by his predecessor as "unfinished business".
He said yesterday: "I think since we're in Yorkshire, I think Hull and East riding is unfinished business. And I am hoping to meet the leaders there in the next few days to see if we can advance discussions there."
He also wants to improve the 'stunted deal' in the North East which means - as our devolution map above shows - that areas north of the River Tyne have powers and funding handed down from Whitehall but not those to the south.
Mr Clark said: "When talking about the coherence of the economy, the economy that links the north and south banks at the Tyne is absolutely held in common. And so I think it is important to rectify what was the deficiency in that."
Your Northern Agenda author had a closer look at the 32-page devolution deal for York and North Yorkshire yesterday, with some interesting proposals on cyber-security jobs in Scarborough and the region's bio-economy leaping out.
But who will be the first elected mayor for the area elected in 2024 to take on these new powers? Amongst those at the National Railway Museum yesterday the name of Kevin Hollinrake - a businessman and MP for Thirsk and Malton - was mentioned.
Approached for comment Mr Hollinrake said he was "enormously flattered" but added: "There is still a fair bit of water to flow under the bridge before we get to the ‘throwing the hat in the ring’ stage so let’s see what happens over the coming months."
Labour frontbencher risks row with party after visiting picket line
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It was only a few days ago that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer sacked shadow transport minister Sam Tarry from the front bench after he gave broadcast interviews from a picket line.
So it's perhaps a sign of Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Lisa Nandy 's strong position within the party that her job seems to be under no threat after visiting striking workers on a picket line this week.
A photograph tweeted by North West regional secretary of the Communication Workers Union Carl Webb appeared to show Ms Nandy meeting striking workers in her Wigan constituency.
Her visit comes in apparent defiance of Sir Keir saying Labour must move from being a “party of protest” to one that can win an election. And as the Guardian reports , Ms Nandy and members of Starmer’s team are understood to dispute whether she was given tacit permission to attend.
Meanwhile a Liverpool MP facing a battle to be selected as the Labour candidate at the next General Election says the party has issues to respond to over the selection process.
Ian Byrne, MP for Liverpool West Derby, said he shared “serious concerns” raised by party members as the former city councillor goes through a series of votes to establish whether he will be on the ballot for a second term.
Would a guaranteed income save money for the NHS?
It's an idea that's unlikely to feature prominently in the Tory rivals' pitch to party members but in Manchester the idea of a basic universal income is attracting high profile supporters.
A conference in the city devoted to the idea of regular government-backed payment for all citizens saw keynote speeches by mayor Andy Burnham and former Green Party leader Baroness Natalie Bennett.
Matthew Johnson, a Professor of Politics at Northumbria University, used the event to launch a new report for the RSA think-tank examining the public health case for universal basic income.
Analysis of data from 40,000 homes concluded that the idea could see the number of 16 to 24-year-olds accessing mental health support reduce by between 29,000 and 46,000 every year, meaning a saving of £99m-£160m per year.
Prof Johnson said: “For whatever reason, many politicians have assumed the idea of a Universal Basic Income is unpopular. But what we have also found is, when it’s explained to people correctly that it would ensure social security for hardworking people with an acceptable standard of living, it is actually a very popular policy – especially in those parts of the country targeted for Levelling Up.”
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Northern Stories
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Cricket legends Sir Geoffrey Boycott and Dickie Bird joined hundreds of family members, colleagues and friends of the late BBC regional TV presenter Harry Gration yesterday to remember “Mr Yorkshire” . Batley & Spen MP Kim Leadbeater told the congregation about the support the award-winning 71-year-old, who died suddenly last month, gave her when her sister, Jo Cox, was murdered in 2016. Ms Leadbeater said: “Mum and dad and I will never forget the kindness and compassion he showed us in our hour of need.”
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Northumberland’s Lioness hero Luzy Bronze looks set to receive a major honour from her local county council after England’s Euro 22 triumph. Berwick-born Lucy Bronze played a major role as her side claimed their first ever Euros title. She was a classmate of Guy Renner-Thompson, who is now the council’s cabinet member for children’s services and is now leading calls for Bronze to receive the Freedom of Northumberland.
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An East Lancashire council is set to take action to prevent pop-up A-boards outside businesses obstructing the blind and disabled using the pavements. Burnley ’s environment boss Shah Hussain promised to look into the licensing rules governing their use and how best to enforce them. He made the pledge after Liberal Democrat group leader Gordon Birtwistle branded the proliferating pavement signs as ‘the most dangerous piece of pavement junk there is’.
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Hundreds of new homes are to be built on the site of a burnt down mill despite fears over congestion, flooding and loss of green space. Proposals for a 311-home estate, at the former Rex Mill site, in Middleton, were passed by a majority vote at the latest meeting of Rochdale council’s planning committee. The Kellen Homes development, off Don Street, will include 45 affordable homes – four specially adapted for disabled people – as well as 99 ‘built-to-rent’ properties.
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Hexham MP Guy Opperman and his wife Flora Coleman Opperman have welcomed a baby son to their family . Mr Opperman announced the birth of Christopher Coleman Opperman on social media and said the baby will be known as Kitto. The birth comes two years on from tragedy, when the MP and partner Flora lost newborn twins Rafe and Teddy during the height of the pandemic in June 2020.
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Politicians from the three main parties in Sheffield have butted heads over whether the council’s failing housing service should be privatised. The council's housing service faces a backlog of more than 6,000 overdue repairs, yet the council is planning to cut it by £5 million in the coming budget. In the latest meeting of the authority's finance sub-committee, Liberal Democrat councillor Joe Otten questioned why the council was spending millions of pounds to build new houses when it was unable to manage its current stock.