Red Wall legend warns Starmer and Reeves ‘you neglected the North – now it’s Brexit 2.0’.uk
Britain is in danger of becoming the ‘sick man’ of the developed world under Labour, warns Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen.
Triple election-winning Conservative Tees Valley Mayor Lord Houchen (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
The Red Wall faces a “Brexit 2.0” moment with devastating consequences for Labour, according to the Tees Valley Mayor who dreams of closing Britain’s North-South divide.
Ben Houchen blazed a trail for Boris Johnson’s 2019 landslide when he won the mayoralty in 2017 and he held on last year despite the catastrophic collapse in Tory support.
This ardent champion of levelling-up says voters are appalled by Sir Keir Starmer’s first year in power and he expects Nigel Farage’s Reform UK would enjoy “wall to wall” successes across his region if elections were held now.
Voters who regret voting Labour, he claims, now think: “Let’s break the system because it can’t get any worse for us. We might as well give this guy Farage a chance.”
He describes this as a “Brexit 2.0 mentality”. In the referendum vote, he says, voters who felt Whitehall “might as well have been on the other side of the world” rejected the “scare tactics” of the Remain campaign. They voted Leave despite dire warnings, telling the British establishment: “Even if you’re right, just imagine how bad I think things are for me to vote Leave.”
In the same way, voters in traditional Labour heartlands are rejecting what they see as “scaremongering from the two main parties” and are willing to give Mr Farage a shot.
The 38-year-old knows what it is like to overturn the status quo. In the 2021 election he was re-elected with 73% of the vote – on the same day the Conservatives snatched Hartlepool from Labour in a by-election.
Today, the Tories are in third place in the polls, with Reform enjoying a double-digit lead. The days of two-party politics in the UK look over but the Mayor thinks it is “increasingly” unlikely Reform and the Conservatives could form a Westminster coalition.
This is because, he claims, Mr Farage’s party is “moving quite far to the Left” and “becoming increasingly a social democratic party”.
But he is quick to point out there are years to go before the next general election. And in the meantime there is “huge disaffection”.
“I think it’s fair to say that pretty much everything that the Labour Government has done in the first year hasn’t gone down well in the Red Wall,” he says.
Inheritance tax changes have “panicked” family businesses, he warns, and the shock decision to axe winter fuel support for millions of pensioners left voters stunned. He describes this as the most “cut-through issue I think you’ll probably ever see in politics”.
One year on since Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves moved into Downing Street, he says voters in his region are left thinking “this Government doesn’t represent them and doesn’t understand the challenges they face”
He says Labour has reverted to taking the North for granted.
“They don’t talk about levelling-up,” he says. “They don’t talk about the Northern Powerhouse.”
Lord Houchen with his wife Rachel and baby Hannah (Image: PA)
People still say: ‘You should never have got rid of Boris because I would still vote for you’
Then-leadership candidate Boris Johnson with Ben Houchen (Image: PA)
He is able to champion the regeneration of the Tees Valley in Parliament thanks to former PM Mr Johnson making him a member of the House of Lords in his resignation honours.
When voters talk to the Mayor about the state of the parties, he says, half of the conversations end with the person saying: “You should never have got rid of Boris because I would still vote for you.”
But he has no desire for another Tory coup, saying: “I think any talk of a leadership change at the moment is for the birds.”
And he warns the “worst thing the Conservative can do would be to try to ape the Reform party”. Instead, he urges Kemi Badenoch’s party to put forward a “solid Right-wing offering” on issues such as immigration and the future of benefits.
In his three mayoral elections, he says, he has been careful not to “over-promise”.
“You don’t have to promise the earth,” he explains. “You should under-promise and over-deliver, but make sure when you say you are going to do something you deliver it.”
The issue of immigration, he argues, has become a “lightning rod for all of the disaffection this country has about how the system isn’t working for them” – and he favours radical action.
“We need to leave the ECHR,” he insists. “We need to be able to deport people who come here illegally and we need to be able to do it very, very quickly.”
He adds: “The one thing I am most confident about saying is migration will continue to be the biggest issue in this country for some time to come.”
As with Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, there is regular speculation Lord Houchen could play a role on the national stage. He does not hide his fears for the future of the UK.
Britain is at risk of becoming the sick man “not just of Europe but of the developed world,” he warns, adding: “It would be an absolutely tragic place for Great Britain to be given our history and also the potential that we have as a nation.”
He would take a scythe to taxpayer-funded bodies he blames for holding back growth.
“There are a handful of quangos you could abolish tomorrow that would make it 75% easier to achieve a better level of growth,” he claims.
When asked for examples, he says: “You could abolish Natural England. I think they are a complete waste of space… I think the same could be said of the Environment Agency.”
He longs for the return of vibrant growth in the North, pointing back to a time in Hartlepool when “there were more millionaires by head of population than anywhere else in the country”.
And he says he is “passionate” about young people in his region reaching their potential. His wife, Rachel, was until recently deputy headteacher at the same comprehensive school in Yarm they both attended, and she spearheaded successful efforts to get students to go to Oxford.
Lord Houchen’s own life was transformed last year with the arrival of his daughter, Hannah.
He says she has given him “a new perspective on life and what it means and what we should all be aiming for”.
His own father was a former soldier who served in Northern Ireland and then worked for decades in the police, and his mother ran a publishing business, studied law and then taught and lectured. The family prized discussion but was “not political in any way”.
There is regular speculation whether Lord Houchen will one day pursue a new career in Westminster (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Labour won in 1997: Things didn’t get better
Tony Blair returned Labour to power in the 1997 landslide (Image: Mirrorpix)
His earliest memory of “actual politics” is coming downstairs on the morning after the 1997 New Labour landslide and realising something significant had happened in the country. Giants of the Labour party such as Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson and Mo Mowlam had seats nearby.
He describes this time as an experiment when Labour “controlled everything” but there was the sense in his area “things aren’t getting better”. He concluded Labour’s ideology “didn’t work” and while training as a solicitor he joined the Conservatives.
“There is an element of my personality which I recognise is slightly contrarian,” he admits.
He is not yet 40 but is a member of the House of Lords, a triple election winner and one of the most influential Tories in the country. Does he fancy entering Westminster politics? He does not rule it out.
“I’m the Mayor for at least the next three years,” he says. “I’m definitely seeing out the rest of my term and who knows where politics will be in that time.”
Right now, he is working for the rebirth of prosperity in the Tees Valley. He may also play a leading role in the rebirth of the Conservative party.
