Amid all the excitement about peerages on Friday, it was easy to overlook the fact that, once again, Boris Johnson had managed to upstage the Northern Research Group’s annual conference. Last year it was the Zelenskyy visit; this year it was Nadine Dorries’ shock resignation. And it meant that the words of a jet-lagged Rishi Sunak – arriving fresh from DC on ‘the red-eye to the red wall’ as one MP put it – were somewhat overlooked. ‘I know some of you have said we should have a minister for the north’ he told applauding attendees ‘but I am a Prime Minister for the north.’
And there was no one more appreciative of Sunak’s presence than Sir Jake Berry, the chairman of the NRG. Responding to the PM’s speech, he hailed his ‘fellow northern MP for setting out his brilliant and compelling vision for the north’, noting his attendance at last year’s event (unlike Boris) and Sunak’s ‘ambition for levelling up, a vision he has continued to implement as our Prime Minister.’ He added that Sunak ‘is a friend of the north and a huge asset for us and to our party as we battle to retain the northern majority of 80 Conservative MPs at the next election.’
In these tough times, such loyalty will no doubt be appreciated by team Sunak – especially given that Sir Jake hasn’t always been such a fan. In last summer’s leadership race, he preferred to back Liz Truss instead, as ‘the person with energy to bring action and delivery to make sure we level up our United Kingdom.’ After a video emerged of Sunak criticising regional funding formulas in early August, Berry tweeted that:
In public @RishiSunak claims he wants to level up the North, but here, he boasts about trying to funnel vital investment away from deprived areas? He says one thing and does another – from putting up taxes to trying to block funding for our armed forces and now levelling up…
As Truss’s premiership flailed in October, Berry insisted that she would be ‘our biggest asset’ at the next general election; after her demise he told Sunak in November that he had ‘six months to get this right.’
Eight months on from that, good to see that Sir Jake is now a signed-up fan…
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