'Moral mission' to decentralise power

"NOW I can say what I really think", joked former Levelling Up Minister Dehenna Davison as she spoke at a Tory party conference fringe event organised by think-tank Bright Blue last week. "But the good news is what I really think really matches what I used to say when I was a Minister."

- ROB PARSONS

The Sheffield-born 'red wall' MP for Bishop Auckland quit her role last month as she battled a chronic migraine, but told the levelling up-themed panel that tackling regional inequalities was a "moral mission" that transcended politics.

But with her ministerial responsibilities now over she revealed that other areas of the Whitehall machine didn't share her Levelling Up Department's enthusiasm for devolution deals handing power from central government to the regions.

Citing a recent visit to Germany to see its transformation post-reunification, she praised the success of areas such as Saxony, where central government had handed decision-making and even tax-raising powers to local leaders.