The Tory candidates have a stark choice: austerity or levelling up Britain

An ambitious vision that makes people feel better about their lives and the places they live in is long overdue, writes Jack Shaw

In recent days, Tom Tugendhat, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have all signed up to Jack Berry MP’s ‘Northern Agenda’ (PA)

When Boris Johnson became prime minister, he made tackling the structural inequalities in the UK’s social and economic fabric a central promise. The recognition that the challenges facing places are not the same and therefore require a different policy response has been widely welcomed.

But the promises set out by the current Conservative leadership candidates suggest that this vision may no longer be a priority and “levelling up” is at risk of being jettisoned. Nor is it clear what fate will befall the levelling up white paper, to which the vision owes much of its intellectual framework.

In recent days, Tom Tugendhat, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have all signed up to Jack Berry MP’s “Northern Agenda” – and Tugendhat, who is unlikely to progress to the next round, has said it would be “at the heart” of government if he were prime minister. But few have set out visions of their own. A key question in this leadership contest is whether candidates accept the need to level up left-behind places, and are prepared to commit to pursuing policies to that effect.