Eric Ollerenshaw MP: Tackling the North-South divide

Eric Ollerenshaw OBE MP, Member of Parliament for Lancaster and Fleetwood.

Last October, ConservativeHome covered the launch of Amber Rudd MP’s report on localism in the planning process. Amber’s report was the first in a series of papers being put together by some of the Forty Group of MPs.

Today I have published my contribution for the Forty Group’s on the North-South divide. This is a more in depth study of a subject on which I wrote a short article for ConservativeHome in June last year.

That there is a North-South divide is clear. And that divide grew under Labour.

Why does it matter? Firstly, that gap creates a sense of unfairness and disunity. But in more utilitarian terms it is a story of untapped economic potential. Plus, we must not rely on just one region or a very few sectors to drive our economy; the financial crash of 2008 has demonstrated the need for a rebalanced economy. Diversifying UK plc and doing more to spread growth more evenly around the country is important for future stability.

Eric Ollerenshaw MP: The north of England declined under Labour - but the Government is well-placed to close the north-south divide

Eric Ollerenshaw is MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood.

I read with interest Andrew Rawnsley’s article in last Sunday's Observer, which was headlined "No wonder the coalition hasn’t got many friends in the north", which led Tim Montgomerie here on ConHome to ponder What could solve the Tories’ northern problem? Both set me thinking.

In 1992 a document of vital importance to the birth of New Labour was published. Southern Discomfort, written by Giles Radice - then the Labour MP for Durham North, now Lord Radice - was a pamphlet which argued that the Labour Party was failing to connect with aspirational workers in the south. It identified very clearly that Labour would never win a majority in the House of Commons without winning in the south and then set out a strategy as to how to do that. That strategy – mainly presentational, but also calling for an end to demands for higher taxes, for instance – was largely adopted and implemented by Tony Blair and helped bring about Labour’s tremendous electoral success.

I reference Southern Discomfort for two reasons. Firstly, because such a divide is as apparent for Labour as it is for the Conservatives. Secondly, because whilst Labour could change its tone – ‘tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime’ for example – we in the Conservative Party need to do a lot more than that if we are truly to win over the North. Labour didn’t have to demonstrate its commitment to the south with ‘south specific’ policies. All the changes made were more of a one nation kind – talking about opportunity for all, not raising taxes, tough on crime etc.

Eric Ollerenshaw MP: How I'm helping to widen access to paid internships in Parliament beyond the wealthy and well-connected

Eric Ollerenshaw is MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood and has helped establish the Speaker’s Parliamentary Placement Scheme.

There is often criticism that trying to get your first job in Parliament is like trying to access a ‘closed shop’. Getting a job in politics is often a case of who you know rather than what you know and, increasingly, the ‘foot in the door’ is via an unpaid internship – something that MPs are criticised for providing.

The truth is that MPs are constrained by their IPSA budgets when it comes to staffing and if they decide to offer paid internships, they have less to spend on long-term contracted staff. Hence paid internships are few and far between.

Consequently, it is only those whose families can support them financially who can afford an unpaid internship. Moreover, simply because of distance, it is only those who live in or near London, or have relatives or friends they can stay with in London or the Home Counties, who can physically commute into Parliament at all if they don’t have an income to pay for housing.

Currently, American interns abound in Parliament, recruited through organised US schemes. Operation Black Vote provides opportunities for a couple of dozen people from BME backgrounds to ‘shadow’ an MP, although that is only for about half a dozen days each year. And a few universities - such as Hull through the excellent Lord Norton - offer longer-term internships of either a semester or a full year as part of their politics courses, again unpaid, although some MPs will pay expenses. And individual MPs will often advertise for interns on www.w4mp.org to recruit directly.