Rishi Sunak was heckled during a visit to Morecambe this morning as he and Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove spoke to people involved in the new Eden Project there.
Source - Daily Telegraph 19/01/23
During a walkabout on the site of the project - which has just been awarded £50 million in funding from the Government - one passer-by shouted at the Prime Minister: "Lend us 20 quid for my heating bill, Rishi."
Multi-millionaire Sunak was in the North of England to convince communities that he cares about shifting billions of central government cash into overlooked parts of the country.
The Telegraph's analysis - headlined "Sunak pumps more money into South" - won't have helped though. We found that more cash is now being funnelled into the South than when Boris Johnson was prime minister.
Sunak insisted that the most funding per person is going to the North of England. "The region that has done the best in the amount of funding per person is the North," he said.
The debate will rage on. But the heckle from the passer-by in Morecambe is indicative of a frustration that the Conservatives are not offering enough hope for working people.
Billions in levelling up cash is all very well, but often voters have to wait years before they see any return on the Government's investment.
Word has reached me of an at times testy meeting yesterday morning between Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Tory MPs who are members of the Northern Research Group.
The MPs badgered Hunt about £15 billion the Treasury has netted from a better than expected economic picture in November and profits on bond sales, as I mentioned on Tuesday.
The Chancellor was having none of it. One source at the meeting told me that Hunt made it clear: "There is not much money to go round."
Challenged over whether he might cut the base rate from 20p to 19p, my source said: "He did not commit."
Some of the Red Wall Conservative MPs were less than impressed. They want reasons to vote Tory to start to emerge ahead of what could be very difficult local elections in May.
And just as I write this newsletter, Sunak has been telling supporters why he cannot cut taxes.
"I am a Conservative," he said. "I want to cut your taxes, of course I do, because you all work incredibly hard and I want you to keep more of your money so you can spend it on the stuff that you want to.
"That is what I want to deliver. I wish I could do that tomorrow, quite frankly, but the reason we can't is because of all the reasons you know.
"You are not idiots, you know what has happened. We had a massive pandemic for two years ... then we have got this war going on which is having an enormous impact on inflation and interest rates."
It just shows how times have changed that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and his shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, are in Davos with the world's financial elite, and there is little adverse political comment back home.
Sunak and his aides are still finding their feet after being drafted in to replace Liz Truss and her team. But at some point, they have to start to offer a reason for people to vote for them.
Cheerio!
Choppe
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