Wigan borough's Tory MPs sign letter to PM calling for more Northern support

The borough's two Conservative representatives are among more than 40 Tory MPs who written to the Prime Minister calling for more support for Northern communities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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James Grundy and Chris Green, the MPs for Leigh and Bolton & Atherton West respectively, have added their signatures to the letter addressing the North-South divide in the Covid-19 tier system, while calling for a clear pathway out of the Tier system for Northerners.

It was scribed by Tory MP for Rossendale and Darwen, Jake Berry, from the newly formed Northern Research Group.

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In the letter, Mr Berry, the former Northern Powerhouse minister, told Boris Johnson: "The North has seen a level of disruption unparalleled with other parts of the country. The virus has exposed in sharp relief the deep structural and systemic disadvantage faced by our communities and it threatens to continue to increase the disparity between the North and South still further."

It added: "Our constituents have been some of the worst affected by Covid, with many losing jobs and businesses. We urge you to reflect carefully on our promise to people living in the North during the last election with the levelling-up agenda and make our region central to the country's economic recovery."

The letter goes on to ask the Prime Minister to "create a pathway down the tiering system and to create a Northern Economic Recovery Plan to help our constituents build back better out of this Covid crisis."

Mr Berry called for “consistent and clear data to be published that shows not just council leaders, but also the public and businesses alike, how they are doing in tackling this pandemic”.

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Asked if he and other northern MPs are staging a “revolt”, the MP for Rossendale and Darwen told the Today programme: “No it’s not a revolt. I mean I don’t know how it can be a revolt for northern MPs to write to the Prime Minister to ask to work with him on delivering his exciting manifesto that he has a mandate for from December 2019.”

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