Kmflett's Blog

There has been media commentary about how many Cabinet members are now from the North (officially defined as the north-west, north-east of England & Yorkshire & Humberside.

Certainly there are more than for a while (see graphic) although I tend to think politics matters more than geography.

Even so there is a long history in the labour movement to this. Before the Independent Labour Party was formed in 1893 an executive was appointed of people from around the UK. The proviso was that must all live in London. It did not work. The ILP was founded in Bradford in January 1893 with Manchester being the early organisational centre

Guardian report 21st July

The new business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, defended the make-up of the cabinet, which has a majority of members based in the north of England, with five from Greater Manchester.

Asked if there was a risk of a north-south divide, Reynolds, the MP for Stalybridge and Hyde in Greater Manchester, told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “No, there isn’t.”

“I don’t want to get touchy about it, but I can’t remember previous occasions where people have objected to too many people from a different part of the country being in there,” he said.