With a 73% majority and a string of interventionist initiatives, Tees Valley mayor, Ben Houchen, is reinventing Conservatism

After Thatcherism and Corbynism, welcome to Houchenism, the doctrine of Tees Valley mayor, Ben Houchen, and endorsed by a whopping 73% of Teesside voters. This 34-year-old northern loyalist is the Tory party’s contemporary version of Michael Heseltine, the lone standard bearer at Thatcher’s zenith of a willingness to intervene “at breakfast, lunch and supper”. Houchen is today’s Tory carrying the Heseltine torch, intervening to reinvent Teesside with the massive backing of his electorate. And a generation later, this Heseltine de nos jours has the backing, not the loathing, of the prime minister. It will not have escaped Boris Johnson’s notice, a self-described Brexity Hezza, that Houchen’s intervention is working big time, economically and politically.

Related: Hartlepool fell victim to the Labour leader’s lack of vision | Owen Jones

Continue reading…

You May Also Like

EC drops plans to ban UK from science projects after backlash

Research bodies voice opposition to exclusion of UK from space projects and…

Family of poet Gboyega Odubanjo launch fundraiser to start foundation

More than £36,000 raised to support low-income black writers in memory of…

‘Get the jab done’: Covid vaccination centre opens in Bristol stadium

Boris Johnson makes surprise appearance as people check in for Covid-19 inoculation…