{"id":239893,"date":"2025-07-05T10:45:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T10:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/239893\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T10:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T10:45:11","slug":"red-wall-legend-warns-starmer-get-ready-for-brexit-2-0-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/239893\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Wall legend warns Starmer ‘get ready for Brexit 2.0’ | Politics | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Red Wall<\/a> faces a \u201cBrexit 2.0\u201d moment with devastating consequences for Labour, according to the Tees Valley Mayor<\/a> who dreams of closing Britain\u2019s North-South divide.<\/p>\n

Ben Houchen blazed a trail for Boris Johnson<\/a>\u2019s 2019 landslide when he won the mayoralty in 2017 and he held on last year despite the catastrophic<\/a> collapse in Tory support.<\/p>\n

This ardent champion of levelling-up says voters are appalled by Sir Keir Starmer<\/a>\u2019s first year in power and he expects Nigel Farage<\/a>\u2019s Reform UK would enjoy \u201cwall to wall\u201d successes<\/a> across his region if elections were held now.<\/p>\n

Voters who regret voting Labour, he claims, now think: \u201cLet\u2019s break the system because it can\u2019t get any worse for us. We might as well give this guy Farage a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

He describes this as a \u201cBrexit<\/a> 2.0 mentality\u201d. In the referendum<\/a> vote, he says, voters who felt Whitehall \u201cmight as well have been on the other side of the world\u201d rejected the \u201cscare tactics\u201d of the Remain campaign. They voted Leave despite dire warnings, telling the British establishment: \u201cEven if you\u2019re right, just imagine how bad I think things are for me to vote Leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the same way, voters in traditional Labour heartlands are rejecting what they see as \u201cscaremongering from the two main parties\u201d and are willing to give Mr Farage a shot.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old knows what it is like to overturn the status quo. In the 2021 election he was re-elected with 73% of the vote \u2013 on the same day the Conservatives<\/a> snatched Hartlepool from Labour in a by-election.<\/p>\n

Today, the Tories<\/a> are in third place in the polls, with Reform enjoying a double-digit lead. The days of two-party politics in the UK look over but the Mayor thinks it is \u201cincreasingly\u201d unlikely Reform and the Conservatives<\/a> could form a Westminster coalition.<\/p>\n

This is because, he claims, Mr Farage\u2019s party is \u201cmoving quite far to the Left\u201d and \u201cbecoming increasingly a social democratic party\u201d.<\/p>\n

But he is quick to point out there are years to go before the next general election. And in the meantime there is \u201chuge disaffection\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s fair to say that pretty much everything that the Labour Government has done in the first year hasn\u2019t gone down well in the Red Wall,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Inheritance tax changes have \u201cpanicked\u201d family businesses, he warns, and the shock decision to axe winter fuel support for millions of pensioners left voters stunned. He describes this as the most \u201ccut-through issue I think you\u2019ll probably ever see in politics\u201d.<\/p>\n

One year on since Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves<\/a> moved into Downing Street, he says voters in his region are left thinking \u201cthis Government doesn\u2019t represent them and doesn\u2019t understand the challenges they face\u201d<\/p>\n

He says Labour has reverted to taking the North for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t talk about levelling-up,\u201d he says. \u201cThey don\u2019t talk about the Northern Powerhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

People still say: ‘You should never have got rid of Boris because I would still vote for you’<\/p>\n

He is able to champion the regeneration of the Tees Valley in Parliament thanks to former PM Mr Johnson making him a member of the House of Lords in his resignation honours.<\/p>\n

When voters talk to the Mayor about the state of the parties, he says, half of the conversations end with the person saying: \u201cYou should never have got rid of Boris because I would still vote for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he has no desire for another Tory coup, saying: \u201cI think any talk of a leadership change at the moment is for the birds.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he warns the \u201cworst thing the Conservative can do would be to try to ape the Reform party\u201d. Instead, he urges Kemi Badenoch\u2019s party to put forward a \u201csolid Right-wing offering\u201d on issues such as immigration and the future of benefits.<\/p>\n

In his three mayoral elections, he says, he has been careful not to \u201cover-promise\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to promise the earth,\u201d he explains. \u201cYou should under-promise and over-deliver, but make sure when you say you are going to do something you deliver it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue of immigration, he argues, has become a \u201clightning rod for all of the disaffection this country has about how the system isn\u2019t working for them\u201d \u2013 and he favours radical action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to leave the ECHR,\u201d he insists. \u201cWe need to be able to deport people who come here illegally and we need to be able to do it very, very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cThe one thing I am most confident about saying is migration will continue to be the biggest issue in this country for some time to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, there is regular speculation Lord Houchen could play a role on the national stage. He does not hide his fears for the future of the UK.<\/p>\n

Britain is at risk of becoming the sick man \u201cnot just of Europe but of the developed world,\u201d he warns, adding: \u201cIt would be an absolutely tragic place for Great Britain to be given our history and also the potential that we have as a nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He would take a scythe to taxpayer-funded bodies he blames for holding back growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a handful of quangos you could abolish tomorrow that would make it 75% easier to achieve a better level of growth,\u201d he claims.<\/p>\n

When asked for examples, he says: \u201cYou could abolish Natural England. I think they are a complete waste of space… I think the same could be said of the Environment Agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

He longs for the return of vibrant growth in the North, pointing back to a time in Hartlepool when \u201cthere were more millionaires by head of population than anywhere else in the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

And he says he is \u201cpassionate\u201d about young people in his region reaching their potential. His wife, Rachel, was until recently deputy headteacher at the same comprehensive school in Yarm they both attended, and she spearheaded successful efforts to get students to go to Oxford.<\/p>\n

Lord Houchen\u2019s own life was transformed last year with the arrival of his daughter, Hannah.<\/p>\n

He says she has given him \u201ca new perspective on life and what it means and what we should all be aiming for\u201d.<\/p>\n

His own father was a former soldier who served in Northern Ireland and then worked for decades in the police, and his mother ran a publishing business, studied law and then taught and lectured. The family prized discussion but was \u201cnot political in any way\u201d.<\/p>\n

His earliest memory of \u201cactual politics\u201d is coming downstairs on the morning after the 1997 New Labour landslide and realising something significant had happened in the country. Giants of the Labour party such as Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson and Mo Mowlam had seats nearby.<\/p>\n

He describes this time as an experiment when Labour \u201ccontrolled everything\u201d but there was the sense in his area \u201cthings aren\u2019t getting better\u201d. He concluded Labour\u2019s ideology \u201cdidn\u2019t work\u201d and while training as a solicitor he joined the Conservatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an element of my personality which I recognise is slightly contrarian,\u201d he admits.<\/p>\n

He is not yet 40 but is a member of the House of Lords, a triple election winner and one of the most influential Tories<\/a> in the country. Does he fancy entering Westminster politics? He does not rule it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the Mayor for at least the next three years,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m definitely seeing out the rest of my term and who knows where politics will be in that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right now, he is working for the rebirth of prosperity in the Tees Valley. He may also play a leading role in the rebirth of the Conservative party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Red Wall faces a \u201cBrexit 2.0\u201d moment with devastating consequences for Labour, according to the Tees Valley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[8916,93324,802,93323,5322,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,93322,386,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-239893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-andy-burnham","9":"tag-ben-houchen","10":"tag-brexit","11":"tag-brexit-2-0","12":"tag-brexit-news","13":"tag-britain","14":"tag-eu","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-european","17":"tag-european-union","18":"tag-great-britain","19":"tag-red-wall","20":"tag-reform-uk","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114800226783880805","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}