EMMA LEWELL-BUCK MP: Every single day of these charlatans in power is a wasted opportunity for our country

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak delivers his keynote speech at the Conservative Party annual conference in Manchester. Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Over the weekend the Prime Minister announced piecemeal funds for 55 'overlooked towns', overlooked by his Government for the last 13 years.

In desperation to appease his fractured Party before Conference, he has awarded the majority to areas with Tory MPs. South Shields yet again is not on the list.

Despite promises to tackle the inequalities that are holding back towns like ours, South Shields has been rejected from all Levelling Up bids.

But it’s not just South Shields being levelled down, it’s the whole of the north. Ironically, this week as the Chancellor boarded his flight to Manchester for Conference, the northern leg of HS2 is earmarked for the scrap yard.

Abandoning this massive levelling-up project to prioritise short-term cost-cutting over long-term investment in the north is truly staggering. Failing to improve the transport links hindering our growth shows the Tories never did and never will care about northern areas and the wealth of talent we have.

The Chancellor has also launched a further crackdown on benefit claimants to bring more people back into the workforce.

People do want to work but his Government has no industrial strategy and is failing to create the conditions for businesses to operate, leading to a shortage of decent jobs.

The education secretary’s big announcement was an old one not yet delivered on banning mobile phones in the classroom, not fixing the schools literally collapsing on her watch.

The Energy Secretary and Levelling Up Secretary has been caught out lying, claiming that Labour would introduce a meat tax and that Brexit has delivered the fabled £350million extra to the NHS.

The Home Secretary is leading the charge in dog whistle, divisive politics that seek to divide our communities and country in the desperate hope we will forget the 13 years of damage the Tories have done.

Every single day of these charlatans in power is a wasted opportunity for our country, a General Election can't come soon enough.