A group of 50 Tory MP’s have written to the Prime Minister to demand a roadmap out of the lockdown and a post pandemic plan for economic recovery in the North of England

The letter comes from the Northern Research Group – a newly-launched alliance of Tory MPs led by ex-Northern Powerhouse minister Jake Berry and calls for Mr Johnson to ‘level-up the North’ – something the PM claimed he would do following sweeping Conservative gains in the region in the General Election.

The virus has exposed in sharp relief the deep structural and systemic disadvantage faced by our communities and it threatens to continue to increase the disparity between the north and south still further,” the MPs said.

“Northern parts of our country were among the first to be significantly affected by the Covid outbreak, and now many communities have been put back under severe restrictions.” The MPs said that while support packages announced by the chancellor had been “significant”, they feared that the cost of coronavirus “could be paid for by the downgrading of the levelling-up agenda”.

The group asks the prime minister to create “a pathway down the tiering system” and to accelerate key road, rail and social infrastructure projects, and job creation. He should develop “a tailored economic recovery plan” for the north,

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