Poverty isn’t just a Northern issue Andy.

[SummerSummerSummertime]

Caught the Prime Minister on a podcast this week and he’s really stuck on a constant, hyper-focus on the North. Ok we get it, things are bad up there (former industrial heartlands etc) but as PM for the whole country, he needs to remember that hardship doesn't stop at a regional border if he wants to maintain national support.
Severe deprivation is happening right across the country, not just in northern heartlands:

London: The capital holds some of the highest actual poverty rates once astronomical housing costs are factored in.

Coastal Communities: Southern seaside towns face deep, hidden deprivation, low wages, and crumbling infrastructure.

The South & Midlands: High living expenses, struggling high streets, and insecure work hit low-income families everywhere.

He also claimed on the podcast that past governments just saw the North as "different" and forgot about it. But by constantly banging on about the North, isn't he just fuelling that exact same fire?
If he keeps treating the North as a special case, he's actively reinforcing a regional divide. Moving focus or power from Whitehall to Manchester might sound great on a podcast, but it does absolutely nothing for a struggling family in a southern coastal town who feel just as invisible to this new government as they did to the last one.
Poverty is a national crisis, not a regional identity.

If Andy wants to keep broad support, his messaging needs to acknowledge and support struggling communities everywhere.

Having listened to the same podcast, I genuinely struggle to see how you came to that conclusion - unless it was your pre-existing opinion and you were looking for confirmation of it.

He was asked about his background and upbringing and so he spoke alot about his pride in the place he grew up and the way it shaped him. He also spoke (really eloquently, I thought) about how disheartening it was that the jobs and opportunities weren’t available in his home town when he came back from university, and he talked alot about the disconnect he found between the experiences of people in the Westminster bubble and the realities for people across the country. To my recollection, though, he didn’t say one single negative about the “South”.

Weird how you rarely hear anyone with an R.P accent described as having “a chip on their shoulder” 🤷‍♀️

South East, an hour on the train from London. Ok I accept I don't speak for all of the South. But my comment stands. It is like night and day the difference in opportunities between North West and South East.

Jaywick is always pulled out in these arguments which is ridiculous when you look at the rest of the top 10 most deprived areas.

And yes, even people in Clacton live a direct commutable distance to London with its abundance of opportunity.

Thanet? 1 hour on the train direct into central London. Go for it, get off your arse and commute to make your life better.

Blackpool though? 3 hours with a change.
Bradford? 3 hours with a change.
Middlesbrough? 4 hours…

Whining about a handful of pockets of deprivation throughout the South when huge areas of the north of England have been discarded for decades is laughable.

Seaside deprivation? Hastings? Fuck me, go to Blackpool and have a look around.

Not to mention that Jaywick has a population of 5000. You’re comparing it to Blackpool where there are 30x more residents and they have a life expectancy of around 7 years less.

That you have to even try and use that to argue that the South is poor too with equal opportunity is laughable.

Don’t worry OP, there’s only two more years to go and then we will have a Reform government instead of a Labour one. And no I don’t want Reform to win the next GE (I will be voting Conservative). But this government aren’t exactly doing much to make themselves popular with voters are they?

Manchester?

And the conservatives did?! Short memory

Of course Manchester is in the South! The middle of the uk is in Morecambe Bay. Manchester is about fifty miles south of that.

Hardly! It is almost as if you (and he) forget that he is the PM for the whole UK including Scotland and NI, not just England.

No there isn’t… the North means Northern England. Beyond that is Scotland.

He’s the Prime Minister of the UK Government, not an English parliament. Manchester is not the north of the UK.

That's what's pissing off many Scots. He seems to be entirely focused one region of just one country in the UK.

He is the UK PM, Scotland is the North
of the UK. If he wants to talk about northern England then he should call it northern England not ‘The North’. It is a bit like a London MP PM calling Islington ‘The North’ when referring to his UK remit then saying ‘that is Manchester, I was talking about northern London when I say ‘The North’ and expecting everyone north of Watford to be content with his references to The aNorth meaning Islington.

Hang on I don't know about Jaywick but plenty of people commute from Hastings daily. It really isn't that far from London and has 3 train lines to get there.

An hour and a half by train gets you to nice places in northern England too. But people in very deprived communities would struggle with a single return fare to London let alone the regular cost of such a commute.

If only the Scots had a parliament run by a competent group of people instead of the SNP. I want Scotland (and indeed Wales) to be independent, but the SNP are the best argument against it.

There is a lot Andy Burnham could do that would benefit people around the UK, if he was prepared to act on private company rip-offs. A new Consumer Act could do this and I bet we could easily come up with 20 ideas that are simple and precise to implement.

Well once again, what counts as North ? Parts of tbe West Midlands definately, most of Essex, some of Suffolk, the home Counties obviously. It's not an hour and a half to Blackpool in anyones money...

Yup.
Being poor in the south is arguably harder than being poor in the north because your rent is a lot more. But all we ever hear about is “the poor northerners”.

And no they don’t get paid more. Minimum wage is the same everywhere

but you are doing the exact same thing as him by homogenising all areas by their compass point. Even the OP has only mentioned areas of England but he is the Prime Minister of 4 countries!

"the south" is a huge area and huge swathes of it have NOT been focussed on at all by previous governments and are not 'coming off better.'

Pps have already mentioned Clacton on Sea, but what about the non-touristy areas of cornwall, etc? or the south wales valleys? both of which of some of the poorest areas in europe, let alone the UK, and haven't had a tenth of the funding poured into Manchester recently. There's no media hub or expansive public transport infrastructure in redruth or merthyr tydfil.

Yes. Jaywick has been classed as the poorest constituency.

I am from London but have lived in a gorgeous and quite spenny part of the NW for decades, and tbh I’m pretty sick of PM’s either pretending the north doesn’t exist outside of jaunty soundbites, or acting like everywhere north of the M25 is gruel and fucking workhouses, and in need of a bit of whatever London has.

OTOH my social worker friend from London is moving back down south - despite being able to afford “much more house” up here - because (she says) she’s never seen so much poverty.

Yet Northern Schools get more per pupil than those in the South West. So where is the money going?
There Are many outstanding schools in the North.

I’m going to preface my comment by reiterating that I’m a left-leaning, Labour voter so I’d like Burnham to succeed. I’m also nowhere near London or the southeast - I live on the opposite side of the country, but also in the south.

I try to keep up with politics but I’m pretty time-poor so I’m very open to the fact I may have missed things.

Can anyone enlighten me how AB has described he’s going to ensure that devolving powers to local authorities won’t involve more delays and bureaucracy? And where the fiscal oversight will be, bearing in mind several councils have mismanaged funds and declared bankruptcy? And areas without mayors won’t have the same local autonomy as other areas?

And what about the areas that simply have no existing infrastructure - they’ll instantly be lagging behind. How will they manage such a huge step up?

Maybe it’s too soon for answers but surely it’s essential to know how this will be managed?

Our local authority is a shitshow. Due to having SEN DC, we’ve had the unfortunate requirement to deal with them extensively, as having many parents in our position. There are many, many tribunals in our community - most of which the LA inevitably lose, and then STILL fail to follow the tribunal ruling.

And it’s not just SEN services. Small potholes outside our MPs office got mended quickly while large potholes elsewhere were ignored - which raises concerns over nepotism. As a rural area, there are diverse needs but the approach to all issues seems to be poorly organised, with little insight into what the community needs. Planning for our first supermarket here has been stuck for over a year because two departments can’t talk to each other.

I understand the principle that devolving power allows priorities to differ, but I can’t see how this is going to be implemented with proper oversight and safety nets. And if there is (which I doubt), that’s more money down the drain that could be better spent.

I’d like to hear answers, not sound bites (that’s directed at all MPs).

It feels as if AB hasn’t shifted to the mindset of being PM and is still in mayor mode. Local power is what he’s used to and what he would have wanted as mayor. He rose to power with an anti-Westminster/promoting the north policy and it doesn’t feel as if that’s changed. He’s promoted key allies rather than people that understand key issues eg/Angela Eagle.

I think No 10 North shouldn’t have been placed in Manchester - as PP have pointed out, it’s had loads of funding and is booming compared to other northern areas. It feels as if Manchester has been chosen because a) it’s more convenient for him and b) it cements his King of the North schtick. I don’t really like the idea at all, but I’d have been open to seeing how it would work if it had been positioned in a northern city in dire need of development and rejuvenation, not his beloved Manchester.

And yes, he is northern and of course he should reflect his experiences but if southern PMs were banging on about “being a Londoner” the whole time they’d have been roundly criticised.

He may talk about “all post codes” but actions speak louder than words, and within days he’d set up a Number 10 in Manchester. His home city…

He’s talked a lot - unprompted - about poor northern areas but I haven’t heard him speaking about the issues southern areas face, particularly rural regions.

AB did well as Manchester Mayor and had genuine and real success in some aspects. However, the area had been regenerating before he came along and had received a lot of funding etc, so he’s not solely responsible. Also, although the centre did well, there were a lot of peripheral communities that were largely ignored - which kind of feels like what’s happening now with him as PM.

I hate all this division, it’s the last thing this country needs right now, but it’s hard to see past it. People in London and the south-east seem to have been tacitly accused of having it all and it’s taboo to talk about poor areas in London/south-east because “London”. It’s not all honey and milk.

Also, like it or not, London IS the capital city of the U.K. and it’s where our seat of government is. And I say this as someone who deeply dislikes London and has no interest in ever visiting there again!

I didn’t like the way AB came into power but I want him to succeed. He’s a decent communicator but I will judge him on what he does, not what he says. Time will tell if he’s genuinely going to help the whole country or whether his goal is to focus on the disillusioned red wall voters in the north.

When he speaks about the north he isn’t meaning the north, it’s meaning Manchester which could not possibly be classed as in the north of the UK.
I think he forgets he’s prime minister of the whole of the country not just England.
Downing Street North is hundreds of miles away from the northern point of the country.

The North? Shetland, Orkney, Hebrides, Highlands, Moray, Aberdeen?

But I mentioned northern England not the north. An hour and a half by train from Blackpool takes in lots of nice areas and more opportunities.