Why the Conservatives chose Teesside to launch their battle bus

A blue bus, unveiled in… Redcar.

The racecourse to be precise, as the Conservative campaign looks to find some extra horsepower to make up ground in the opinion polls.

The choice of location was a reminder of how vital the Tees Valley has been, and perhaps continues to be, to the Tories.

Ben Houchen is the party’s only remaining mayor in England, the only real bright spot in a brutal set of local election results last month.

Rishi Sunak came to celebrate with him at Teesside Airport then, and Saturday’s bus launch had its similarities, such as the PM again spending some time cooing over a local party member’s baby.

It’s been reported that the Tees Valley mayoral result was a big factor in Downing Street deciding on an early general election, but one noticeable difference at this weekend’s event was that the mayor was far from centre stage.

Perhaps a consequence of Lord Houchen saying in a recent interview that the Prime Minister is “ultimately” responsible for “chaos” within their party, or perhaps a sign of the mayor wanting to keep some distance from a national campaign that’s unlikely to end in success.

Mr Sunak seems to consider himself a kind of honorary Teessider, with his neighbouring constituency at the top of North Yorkshire.

As Chancellor, he announced the Teesside freeport and a new government campus in Darlington, as well as funding for a clutch of town centre regeneration projects.

This weekend the Conservatives pledged they would provide £20m each for 30 more towns, including Thornaby.

That was timed to coincide with the visit to Redcar, and their press release claimed it would mean “building on our strong track record of levelling up in Teesside and the Midlands.”

I questioned the Prime Minister on Saturday about whether they were really reducing inequalities in our region, and he responded by saying those projects were “creating new jobs, opportunity.”

It will inevitably take time to see any difference in the data around the deepest-rooted of inequalities, such as healthy life expectancy.

But Mr Sunak’s ongoing commitment to the ‘levelling up’ agenda is under question, after the party said their plan to bring back a form of National Service for 18 year olds would be largely funded by winding up the £1.5bn-a-year UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

That is one of the main ‘levelling up’ pots, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned this week that scrapping it would mean “a significant reduction in funding aimed at tackling geographic inequalities” and leave the North East £46m a year worse off.

The PM insisted to me: “we”re continuing to invest in lots of different ways in levelling up” and National Service would be “transformational for young people across the North East.”

That plan, plus their Tories’ pledge to further protect pensions, have suggested they’re following a core vote strategy, trying to shore up their traditional support - consisting, in the broadest terms, particularly of older, more affluent people further south - perhaps at the expense of new ‘Red Wall’ voters won over by Boris Johnson at the last general election.

The opinion polls suggest Labour are firmly on course to win back the heartland areas they’ve lost in recent years, and they have only sent Shadow Environment Secretary Steve Reed to the North East in the 10 days since the general election was announced.

The Liberal Democrats don’t have any MPs here, and are only targeting Harrogate & Knaresborough in the region, while Reform UK leader Richard Tice decided to stand for election himself in Lincolnshire, rather than Hartlepool.

That’s led to an early feeling that the parties see the big battlegrounds as elsewhere.

The Conservatives’ battle bus launch in Redcar changed that feeling a bit, though we’ll see how much attention the region gets over the next month.

The Tories are defending five seats in the Tees Valley, and the PM insisted they will “absolutely” still have some local MPs left after 4 July.

He then travelled on the bus for a first stop off in Blyth, the first place that switched from red to blue in 2019.

Rishi Sunak needs to spring an even bigger surprise now, if these aren’t to be his last few weeks as Prime Minister.

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