Blog: What next for the North East's devolution deal?

By Daniel Hewitt, Political Correspondent

As the North East becomes the first region to vote against taking forward a devolution deal proposed by the Government, attention now turns to how patient the Government is willing to be.Council leaders in the North East aren't the first to voice concerns and even outright objections to the deal being offered. Devolution in Merseyside was a slow and tortuous process, with similar reservations over the idea of an elected-mayor and the amount of money being offered.

Ultimately, council leaders in Liverpool reluctantly relented following pressure from the Treasury, the then-Communities Secretary Greg Clarke and their unflinching threat that 'it's this deal or no deal'.

The then-Chancellor George Osborne personally invested great political capital in these deals, forming part of his Northern Powerhouse agenda. Deals failing to materialise wasn't an option, hence the time-frame imposed on the North East.

But Osborne is no more. We have a different Chancellor and a different Prime Minister, both of whom have shown little, if any, enthusiasm for these devolution deals. Their silence on the Northern Powerhouse has been deafening. Following today's news, it may be less a question of how patient they will now be, and more a question of whether they'll actually care.

Last month the Department for Communities and Local Government said the government still "supports the devolution deals already in place", but it's believed Theresa May isn't keen on the idea of elected-mayors in Labour strongholds, for fear it could rejuvenate the party at a time when she has them exactly where she wants them.

Today may prove the perfect opportunity to end a process she wasn't that bothered about in the first place.