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.’
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