It was Maya Angelou who coined the timeless phrase: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."
When it comes to Rishi Sunak, this phrase is highly pertinent.
It was, of course, on a sun-soaked green in Tunbridge Wells last summer when Sunak made it abundantly clear how he feels about 'levelling up' the country.
Sunak was in his first Tory leadership bid, which he would lose to Liz Truss, and was desperately trying to claw back votes from Conservative members who liked the sound of Ms Truss' right-wing rhetoric.
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He took the opportunity to boast of his work as Chancellor in diverting funding away from deprived urban areas and towards the type of affluent Tory heartland he was speaking in.
It was a mask-slipping moment from the man who now runs the country and made a total mockery of the 'Levelling Up' agenda that the government he was a key part of had regularly championed.
For those of us living in these 'deprived urban areas' that he spoke so callously of, the words did not come as much of a surprise. Many of us have always known that levelling up was a con. A cynical ploy to win votes in 'red wall' marginals that have done nothing to tackle the entrenched regional inequality that exists in this country.
Since assuming his Prime Ministerial office, Sunak hasn't even tried to hide his lack of ambition for the north. We only have to look at his decision to jettison the northern leg of HS2 and with it, the economic fortunes of this huge part of the country, as clear evidence of this insouciance.
Oh and let's not forget that some of the cash that was saved from this scandalous decision was then pumped into fixing potholes in the capital under the curiously titled 'Network North' scheme.
Fast-forward to the present day and this week's budget and we have yet more egregious examples of this government's disdain for parts of the country that have been left behind for so long.
While poor deindustrialised northern areas are left to fight for small pots of cash in a hunger-games style battle, the Chancellor boasted of new devolution deals for Buckinghamshire and Surrey.
And while local councils in the most deprived areas of the country were ignored in favour of tax giveaways, Hunt also pledged to pump £242 million into the continued development of Canary Wharf in the capital.
Analysis from the New Economics Foundation found that when taken together, the National Insurance cuts from this week and the last autumn budget will cost the government £100bn over the next five years. These giveaways will see the biggest benefit to those in London and the southeast; with £1141 whereas those in the northeast get £704.
The NEF found that if the government chose to spend the money lost to National Insurance cuts over the next five years on levelling up, they could treble the entire 13-year programme and get real, transformative funding into the areas that need it most.
Abi O'Connor, from the foundation, put it well when she said: "Funnelling money into the capital in the name of reducing regional inequality is emblematic of this government's approach to levelling up. This budget has underlined the fact that regional inequality is a problem that this government is happy to reproduce."
Looking around today at the smoking ruins of this government's grand levelling-up pledges and the shameful continued growth in regional inequality in this country - it is impossible to disagree.
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We need no further proof that levelling up is a total con
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10.03.2024
It was Maya Angelou who coined the timeless phrase: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."
When it comes to Rishi Sunak, this phrase is highly pertinent.
It was, of course, on a sun-soaked green in Tunbridge Wells last summer when Sunak made it abundantly clear how he feels about 'levelling up' the country.
Sunak was in his first Tory leadership bid, which he would lose to Liz Truss, and was desperately trying to claw back votes from Conservative members who liked the sound of Ms Truss' right-wing rhetoric.
READ MORE:Doorman left stag party member with brain injury after he was thrown out of bar
READ MORE:He told his mum he wanted to be a pilot but a week later he was shot dead
He took the opportunity to boast of his work as Chancellor in diverting funding away from deprived urban areas and towards the type of affluent Tory heartland he was........
© Liverpool Echo
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