27 April 2023 , 08:53
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Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has blasted the Tories’ flagship levelling-up plan as more like “flattening down”.
The party big beast launched the attack in a foreword to a report pressing for greater devolution across Britain.
The 64-page study by the Centre think tank, ‘Devolution revolution: Devolving powers to the nations and regions of the UK’ - seen exclusively by the Mirror - slams the current arrangements and demands more cash.
“The devolution settlement that exists within the UK is not fit for purpose and power is unevenly distributed,” it says.
“Devolved governments also have wide ranging powers over public services without adequate funding.”
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Writing the foreword to the report, Lord Kinnock, 81, says: “For a mixture of historical reasons and short term expedients, the United Kingdom now has an uniquely centralised national administration and a patchwork of local governance that only has underfunding in common.
He led Labour from 1983 to 1992 (Getty Images)“It all comes nearer to flattening down than ‘levelling-up’.”
The peer warns the constitutional “mish-mash is closer to stasis than settlement”.
“It needs to be changed for profound reasons of operational efficiency and representative democracy,” warns Lord Kinnock, who led Labour from 1983 to 1992.
“This paper therefore provides a useful contribution to the thinking that has to be done by offering a clear route map towards workable and fair devolution for the whole of the UK.
“By setting out practical ideas about accountable powers to foster economic development and improve public services, it is focused on the main challenge which must be to serve, empower and enrich the lives of the communities which give identity, security and opportunity to the British people.”
Plans include devolving the courts and justice system to Wales and giving Cardiff Bay and Holyrood “full powers over roads within their borders”, as well as granting new social security powers to Wales, which “may also lead to a new social security agency in Wales”.
The plan would give more powers to the Senedd in Cardiff Bay (Getty Images)Centre says its blueprint “gives real powers to devolved governments, parliaments and assemblies across the UK”.
It adds: “Alongside large scale devolution also comes devolution of taxation powers and a new funding formula.
“This ensures that devolution benefits the most deprived areas of the UK and gives them real powers to shape their own future.”
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Think tank director Torrin Wilkins said: “This paper sets out a real plan to give more powers to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and all regions of England.
“It also gives devolved nations the real funding they need to improve healthcare and education.”
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