Lisa Nandy has said Michael Gove’s long-awaited levelling up plan is “more of the same” from a government “out of ideas” and “out of energy”.
In a stinging Commons exchange, Labour’s shadow levelling up secretary accused ministers of “cobbling together a shopping list of recycled policies and fiddling the figures”.
Gove was forced to defend the funding of his levelling up promises on Wednesday morning, insisting the government will “change the economic model of this country”.
The levelling up secretary said there are “12 big missions” the government wants to achieve by 2030 in order to improve the lives of those outside London and the South East.
The white paper will set out a series of wide-ranging national “missions” – from improving public transport to ensuring access to 5G broadband – to be enshrined in law.
But Nandy said the government’s plan “does nothing to address” struggling high streets and local economies.
Speaking in the Commons, she said: “What we needed was a plan – to connect our towns and villages to jobs, opportunities, our family and our friends.
“But they’ve halved the funding for buses, scrapped rail promises to the north and where is the digital Britain we were promised?”
Hitting out at Gove for including “a history lesson on the rise of the Roman Empire” in the long-awaited policy release, she said: “You don’t need to look to Rome, Jericho or Renaissance Florence for inspiration.
“In Preston, Wigan and Grimsby people are delivering real change for themselves – not because of their government, but despite it.
“Imagine what we could do if they got out of the way and gave us back the power to make decisions for ourselves. It’s absurd that we still have to go cap in hand to Westminster to do things we know will work for us.
“We asked for powers and we got a process. Where are the powers we were promised? The arrogance of a Chancellor sitting in Whitehall drawing lines on a map, choosing which of us have earned the right to have some say over the decisions that affect our lives, our families, our communities.”
Nandy continued: “In every corner of our country, people know we can do so much better than this. Well-paid jobs that put money back into people’s pockets to genuinely transform our high streets and town centres.
“Reformed business rates that back our bricks and mortar businesses. A plan to buy, make and sell more in Britain and an education recovery plan that stands as a testament to our commitment to the young people who make this country.
“This is our mission Mr Speaker. Today we’ve learnt one crucial thing – for all the spin and the gloss – they won’t do it. We will.”
Related: Johnson accused of ‘gaslighting Britain’ over looming Tory tax hikes
