25 April 2025, 13:27

By Andrew Carter

Economic disenfranchisement is one of the key reasons why people have turned away from Labour and the Tories.

But if Labour wants to improve the lives of people in “left behind” places, not only do key parts of its growth strategy need to stay, they need to be enhanced. This includes going further on already bold planning reforms and setting out an industrial strategy that has investment in the country's biggest cities, like Birmingham and Manchester, as a central component.

But would this widen political and economic divides? Centre for Cities’ latest briefing shows it would not.

Despite much of the political discourse framing it as such, voting for populism is not a railing against the success of large neighbouring cities. It is more likely a protest against not being able to access the prosperity they generate. In this sense, the rise of populism has been misdiagnosed. Prosperous cities do not create “left behind” places and political disenfranchisement. Underperforming cities........

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