Andy Burnham has been urged to stop rural voters “drifting away” from Labour by a group of MPs cautioning against too much urban bias. The ’King of the North’ was told by those representing countryside seats won by the party for the first time in 2024 not to treat their areas as peripheral.
A policy blueprint by the Labour Rural Research Group
(LRRG), which has 40 MPs — about 10 per cent of the parliamentary party — said
any devolution drive should not only benefit major urban centres. The comments came in a report, due to be
published on Tuesday, that criticised successive governments for treating rural
areas as “economically marginal”.
James Naish, vice-chair of the LRRG, wrote: “The purpose of
devolution shouldn’t simply be to shift power from Whitehall to major urban
centres. It should go much further and
ensure that communities with different geographies, economies and needs are
properly understood within national policy. Rural Britain cannot be treated as
an afterthought, nor can urban policy simply be retrofitted to rural communities.”
He added that these communities “shouldn’t be seen as
peripheral to national renewal” and that the next phase of Labour in government
should not see them as areas requiring financial support.
Figures cited by the LRRG showed just 27 per cent of voters
surveyed for its report were confident the government would strengthen its
rural policy, while 40 per cent were not confident.
Although concern was voiced over the scale of the challenge
Labour will face in rural seats at the next election, the LRRG said there was
still a chance for Burnham to change the party’s fortunes. Among the policies he was encouraged to
consider were a business rates taper for rural and farm-based firms, as well as
making it easier for farmers to diversify their property to boost income.
Burnham was urged to make rural Britain a separate part of
the government’s tourism strategy and give communities more perks for hosting
renewable energy infrastructure.
