Labour's Deputy Leader pledges to bring green energy jobs to Stoke-on-Trent

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner says levelling up has been a ‘scam and a sham’ in Stoke-on-Trent – but insists her party will bring green energy jobs to the city.

Ms Rayner visited the Potteries on Monday morning aboard Labour’s election battle bus, meeting candidates and activists outside Fenton Town Hall.

She said Labour would ‘turn Stoke-on-Trent red’ in the general election on July 4 – four-and-a-half years after the Conservatives won all three parliamentary seats in the city as part of an historic landslide victory. Since the 2019 election Stoke-on-Trent has been a focus of the government’s levelling up agenda, with tens of millions of pounds being allocated to regeneration projects in the city.

These projects have included the Goods Yard in Stoke, the first phase of which is set to open early next year, as well as Etruscan Square in Hanley. But Ms Rayner dismissed levelling up as ‘window dressing’ following austerity budget cuts, and said that Labour would do more to revive the local economy with more manufacturing jobs.

She claimed that Great British Energy – Labour’s proposal for a publicly owned energy company – would help bring green jobs of the future to the area.

Mr Rayner said: “I see the money that’s come to Stoke-on-Trent from the Levelling Up Fund, but I raise you the £170 million that the council has had to cut. It’s like taking 50 quid out your back pocket and giving you a tenner. And it hasn’t really fixed the fundamentals around the economy and industry. It’s window dressing. And the gimmicks around levelling up has meant that councils have competed with each other for pots of money, and that’s wasted millions of pounds.

“I want councils to collaborate with each other to bring about the change that we need, such as through better education. That’s why we’ve announced that we would put 6,500 qualified teachers in schools because we think that’s the right choice to make with the VAT on private schools. We think that good education, sound housing, and supporting our high streets and businesses will bring that fundamental change, as opposed to the gimmick that we have with levelling up, which quite frankly was a sham and a scam for people.”

The Potteries had been a solid Labour heartland for decades, but support for the party had declined in recent years, which culminated in the 2019 wipeout across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire. Ms Rayner denied the suggestion that Labour had taken Stoke-on-Trent for granted, but said the party had failed to put forward an offer that people here could vote for. She insisted that had changed under Keir Starmer.

She said: “It’s not voters that were the problem. We needed to recognise that we needed to change as a party and put the interest of voters was first and that’s what you’ve seen since Keir took over. We’re a party that’s putting the country first. We’ve listened to people across Stoke on Trent and across the UK. And I think since then the Tories have gone into absolute meltdown and chaos and we now need that stability.

“What we need now is fundamental, getting the basics right, you know, people who are willing to do the hard yards, roll up the sleeves, and really make the change happen. If you take Stoke-on-Trent where a lot of manufacturing has left the area. People have been promised so much and yet the fundamentals of getting that industry back hasn’t happened. Our programme on things like Great British Energy will bring thousands of jobs, which will help areas like Stoke-on-Trent, we want them to be part of the mix.”

Ms Rayner admitted that a Labour government would not be able to reverse 14 years of austerity cuts to local services in Stoke-on-Trent, and said ‘you can’t tax your way out of this’. But she insisted that her party would oversee economic growth which would allow more investment in public services.

Elsewhere on the election campaign trail

Rishi Sunak said he had "of course not" considered quitting ahead of the election amid the continued fallout over his early departure from D-Day commemorations.

The Prime Minister vowed to carry on "until the last day of this campaign" as he sought to dampen rumours that he might resign ahead of polling day on July 4.

Criticism of his early exit from the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings dogged Mr Sunak over the weekend, when he kept a low profile and avoided questions from reporters.

But during a campaign visit on Monday in Horsham, West Sussex, which has a Tory majority of 21,127, he told journalists he would not stop "fighting for the future of our country".

Today the Conservatives are promising eight thousand new police officers in England and Wales.

It comes as the Liberal Democrats have launched their full election manifesto, with an offer of a £9.4 billion package for the NHS and social care in England.

Leader Sir Ed Davey told an event in central London: "The truth is unless we properly value care, unless we properly support carers, we will never be able to fix the crisis in our NHS or get our economy back on track.

"And that's why I'm so proud the Liberal Democrats have put health and care at the heart of our campaign in this General Election, and at the heart of our manifesto too."

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claims his party's close to a "tipping point" - but accepts there's not much support in London or Scotland.

He was speaking at an event to outline some economic policies, including proposals that people shouldn't start paying income tax until they earn 20-thousand-pounds a year.

But Mr Farage criticised the way some pre-election polls work, claiming Reform's often not an easy option to find.

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