Lord David Blunkett’s comments on the state of devolution and the North

Thanks for this brief opportunity.

I have written an article in the Yorkshire Post which has some tangential relevance to what I’m about to say this afternoon, which is that we are in paradoxical situation, I think, in Yorkshire.

We’ve seen the arrangements, post the transition deal with the European Union, which we have now left completely, which involved Northern Ireland having even greater salience in terms of still being part of the Single Market with the new border down the Irish Sea. And the deal between Gibraltar and the European Union, the treaty, which has affectively meant that they’ve stayed part of the European Union, they are part of Schengen and have an open border with Spain. And of course, the SNP in Scotland who are pretty rampant at the moment.

Now, the reason I mention that is because the paradox is that it should be a driving force for greater devolution within England and it should be offering us greater opportunity. But I think if the Conservatives lose the West Midlands in May (2020), it is quite likely that the interest in devolution will be pared back even further. The people who were enthusiastic about devolution are not in the forefront at the moment, and partly because of the COVID crisis and the issues around that, and the obvious challenges of having just left the transition deal with the EU, but also because I think there is a bit of cooling that has taken place on the back of the standoff between Andy in Greater Manchester and the Government at the end of last year.

Now, I think all of that can be dealt with and I think we can have a very good and positive relationship with the Government over the next four years, in relation to what we would want. And that extends from those who are fully committed to and want a One Yorkshire in the way that it was being described until mid-last year, and those of us who see a step-by-step approach in relation to the city regions and the city mayors and the way in which we can develop those elements of devolution, and then start to put that jigsaw together, partly in a loose partnership and federation within Yorkshire, and then building on that, so that we can get cooperation including from business and the universities. But it does take quite a lot to move from where we are to where we would like to be, and I think that it why this group is really important and why we should see slow progress, not as a downside, but as something we should be able to accelerate when we can. And Judith (Blake) knows more about this than I do, but presumably progress has really been made in West Yorkshire.

We continue to get a really raw deal; this is not a party-political point because this has been too long in the making. But even small things really irritate me these days, which shows that the COVID lockdown is getting to me already. The New Years Honours for instance, you did better in West Yorkshire Judith (Blake), you got, I think, 4 CBEs, in the South Yorkshire City Region, we got nothing above OBE. It’s a piece of trivia but it indicates, I think, the really important areas of the voice being heard, the battle cry from Yorkshire being that we want a fair deal, and we want to have that voice heard whenever it matters. I think small things sometimes can illustrate the way in which we are seen, and I think the view at the moment, and this has been my argument about HS2, is that people talk about the North of England and what the really mean is the North-West of England. And the briefing note from HS2 for  the bill that’s just gone through the Lords in relation to the next stage, the Birmingham to Crewe and then to Manchester stage, was all about how this was actually reaching out to and delivering to the North of England, and of course it wasn’t, it was delivering to part of the North of England.

And I think we have got a major challenge east of the Pennines to actually make that clear, 5.3 million population, larger than Scotland. We don’t get one of the big, hyper vaccination centres that are coming on stream next week, London, Stevenage and Surrey get three of them. And these are just indicators, they are not critical in any sense of disruption because we will do our own thing and we will build on what we have, and we will make it work. But it is an indication, I think, of the way currently the relationship exists and the way we are seen. And all of us pulling together and burying any disagreements we might have had over the last couple of years, will be absolutely fundamental to getting this right. And if we can unite old and new Members of Parliament, old and new members of the House of Lords, with business and commerce, with the churches, with the universities in making that voice loud and clear and making sure that we do put trivial disagreements on one side, I think that we could do really good job. I’ve said all along that we will have to do this from the bottom up and building those things that we know work and we can do ourselves will be really important. But if North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, East Yorkshire and South Yorkshire fall out, the voice of Greater Manchester will continue to be the predominant feature of the voice of the North. And whilst I don’t want to fall out with my very good friend Andy, who used to be my Parliamentary Private Secretary, I do actually think it’s time that it’s a dual North-West and Yorkshire effort, rather than people feeling they can speak for others.