The "sluggish" reaction to floods shows how much Tories neglect the North, says campaigner

12 November 2019, 17:08 | Updated: 12 November 2019, 17:11

The Prime Minister's "sluggish" reaction to the floods is a perfect example of how much the government neglects the North, says political editor and Power Up the North campaigner.

Political editor Liam Thorp said it was "hard to disagree" with the Labour leader's critiques over Boris Johnson's "woeful" response to the floods which led to 1,000 properties being evacuated and 500 homes being flooded in Doncaster.

"I think Boris Johnson's reaction was sluggish at best," said Thorp, and all he has done for a few days is "a bit of bad mopping of a slightly flooded area."

He continued: "It plays into the narrative that many people in this part of the country feel that they are playing second fiddle. The delay in the declaration of the emergency and the Cobra meeting is only going to add to those feelings that pervade large swathes of the North - which is that we don't get a fair crack of the whip."

This was proven by last year's Centre for City report which found that austerity had hit Liverpool hardest out of any other city in the country, Thorp said that because the Conservatives are aware they won't win seats here, they have "forgotten about the city."

Jeremy Corbyn called Boris Johnson&squot;s flood response "woeful" — Jeremy Corbyn called Boris Johnson's flood response "woeful". Picture: PA

The political editor said that since 2010 Liverpool's council has lost £430 million of funding from the government.

Eddie asked whether people in the North are wary of promises made in this election period.

Thorp said the best thing about the North is its warm, kind and funny people who are also very clever, and have experienced this before when it comes to elections.

"We've been championing our regions for a long time and not really hearing much from Whitehall," said Thorp, referring to his work on the Power Up the North campaign, "now obviously this election is going to focus greatly on the North. There's a lot of Northern seats that could really be pivotal in this election."

He called this sudden focus on the North "patronising" and said "Northern voters will be very suspicious before they believe everything that they're told."