The Northern Agenda

This week Rob and Liam dissect the big announcement by Chancellor Rachel Reeves of a multi-billion pound cash bonanza for the North's transport services, what it'll mean for people who want to get about the region and why it feels very different to when Rishi Sunak announced the exact same thing less than two years ago. And ​R​ob has an interview with ​Wes Streeting ​w​here he quizzed the Health Secretary on his controversial shake-up of the NHS, whether he wants to hand control of health services to mayors like Andy Burnham, and what he thinks of the local councillor in Wakefield who says Keir Starmer is the worst Prime Minister he's ever seen. Plus​ hear all about the Burnley Banksy and his mysterious minions artwork and Liam explain​s why he's been talking to librarians​... The Northern Agenda is a Reach produced, presented by Rob Parsons and Liam Thorp, and produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

​This week Rob Parsons speaks to one of the leading voices in the region, if not the country, on the all-important issue of how we can ensure everyone has a chance to succeed in life regardless of their background. The concept is also called social mobility, and in 2010 a body called the Social Mobility Commission was set up to hold the country and the Government of the day to account on whether things are actually improving in this respect. Its chair Alun Francis has years of experience on the ground trying to make the lives of young people better in the North. Currently, the Principal and Chief Executive of Blackpool and The Fylde College, he previously had the top job at Oldham College. It's the 15th anniversary of the Child Poverty Act this year, the legislation that brought the social mobility commission into being. So what better time to talk to Alun about why young people in the North are still being held back by where they're from, and importantly what we can do about it. The Northern Agenda is a Reach production, presented by Rob Parsons and produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week ​on the Northern Agenda, Rob and Liam chat about the new buzzword for the North, replacing the 'Northern Powerhouse' and 'levelling up'. What does it mean and why does it matter? Rob reports back from a big-money property and development conference in Leeds where Northern politicians are desperate to make connections with investors, but it turns out so are the people running our big football clubs. ​With Radio 1's Big Weekend and a trophy parade for Liverpool Football Club, Liam tells us why it's going to be one of busiest weekends on Merseyside for years. ​And why do all the quirkiest stories from across the North seem to come from Blackpool? The Northern Agenda is Reach production, presented by Rob Parsons and Liam Thorp, and produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Northern Agenda podcast is back, bringing you more weekly insights into the big issues affecting the North of England. This time, Rob Parsons is joined by new co-host Liam Thorp, political editor of the Liverpool Echo, to talk about the biggest politics stories in the North from a Northern perspective. Rob and Liam look at how Nigel Farage's Reform UK have been getting on now they have their first Northern MP and run several councils and local authorities in our region. Plus Liam explains why the Liverpool Echo and Manchester Evening News have been putting their old rivalries aside for a joint front page and they ask why on earth people have to keep parking on the pavement on Merseyside. The Northern Agenda is a Reach production, presented by Rob Parsons and Liam Thorp, and produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Northern Agenda is back and this time, Rob Parsons is joined by Liverpool Echo political editor Liam Thorp for your weekly fix of the political stories that really matter to the North! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Parsons hosts a special mayoral hustings edition of The Northern Agenda podcast, brought to you from the home of the Hull Daily Mail and Hull Live. We are just a few days away from finding out who is going to be chosen by voters for a job that's never existed before, but could have a huge impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people north of the River Humber.  After May 1's elections, the seven metro mayors across the North - the likes of Andy Burnham and Ben Houchen - will be joined by one representing Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire, a patch representing 600,000 people. Whoever gets in next week will have a £400m long-term investment fund and powers over education, housing and transport to help make life better for the region's 600,000 population. With the help of questions from Hull Daily Mail readers, Rob Parsons quizzes five of the six candidates to be mayor: Reform UK's Luke Campbell, Liberal Democrat Mike Ross, Conservative Anne Handley, Labour's Margaret Pinder and the Yorkshire Party's Rowan Halstead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the final episode of The Northern Agenda's Our Kids In The North podcast, Rob Parsons and Annie Gouk look at the choices facing young people in our region when they reach 16. That's the age when they no longer have to stay in school but they do have to stay in some form of education or training until the age of 18, so that opens up options like starting an apprenticeship, taking a vocational course like a T Level or pursuing further education with A Levels with a view to going to university. The aim of all that is to end up with a good job, or at least putting yourself on the path towards getting one. And that's why their success is something political leaders in the North are taking a keen interest in as they know the young people coming out of schools today will be the ones who in years to come will be helping to grow our region's economy. We hear from the further education college in Hartlepool whose principal describes it as “overlooked, undervalued, underfunded, yet marvellous” - how is it helping young people to better futures in the face of funding cuts and widespread poverty? Students in the buzzing centre of Manchester talk to Rob about how young people in the city are struggling with bad landlords and poor mental health. The Vice-Chancellor at the University of York talks about the broken funding system for higher education - and how he hopes to use technology to reach students across the world. And Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham describes how we have "an education system built for the third who are going to university and not the two thirds who are not" - and what he's doing to change that. The Northern Agenda: Our Kids in the North is a Reach Studio production, presented by Rob Parsons with contributions from Annie Gouk. The podcast is produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

​"It's really difficult being a kid at the moment. And that's for a whole host of reasons. You see that with the increased mental health problems our children are facing. You see that with the issue of attendance at school. You see that with issues of family breakdown, issues of poverty. And those issues have been worsened by the pandemic." Jim Lauder,​ Assistant Vice Principal, Dixons Trinity Academy This week on The Northern Agenda's series Our Kids In The North, Rob Parsons and Annie Gouk look at​ what it's like to go to a school in Northern England, where absence and exclusion rates are higher than the rest of the country. ​Jim Lauder, whose trust runs schools in several Northern cities, tells of the challenges he and his colleagues face working with children from deprived communities in places like Bradford. There's exclusive data from the Northern Powerhouse Partnership about the areas of the North where pupils are most likely to miss school. And leaders in one area of our region tell Rob how they're using robots to give emotional support to young people struggling to attend. And at a time when the Labour government is making big changes to our education system, Rob speaks to Yorkshireman Neil O'Brien, the Conservative MP who's leading the attack on Bridget Phillipson's school reforms. And we hear from Jonathan Brash, who has a unique perspective as a Labour MP in Hartlepool who used to work in leading private schools in the North. Does he agree with the move to add 20% VAT to private school fees? The Northern Agenda: Our Kids in the North is a Reach Studio production, presented by Rob Parsons with contributions from Annie Gouk. The podcast is produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most people listening to this podcast will likely have been able to take for granted having a loving family to look after them as they grew up. But for tens of thousands of children in the North, that is not the case. For a host of reasons, whether it's a risk of harm, their parents being too unwell to look after them or just the absence of any one to take parental responsibility, they have been put into the care of the state. And the North has way more looked after children than it should do. And that's bad news not just for the children themselves - because children in care tend to have worse health and educational outcomes - but for the local authorities who are responsible for looking after them. In the fourth episode of The Northern Agenda's Our Kids In The North series, Rob Parsons and Annie Gouk look into why there are so many children in care in the North and what this tells us about the failings of society. We hear from a Northern mayor who grew up in care, an MP from our region wrote an influential report into how to fix our broken care system and a young care leaver from Blackpool, the seaside town with the highest rate of children in care of anywhere in the country. And listen out to hear about a pioneering scheme in Greater Manchester that could finally put an end to the profiteering of private care homes. If you want to read more on this subject, please check out this report by Health Equity North that we leaned on heavily when putting together this episode: https://www.healthequitynorth.co.uk/app/uploads/Children-in-Care-Report-2024-FINAL-2.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The scandal of grooming gangs targeting vulnerable girls in places like Rotherham and Oldham has dominated the news in 2025. But this week on the podcast Rob Parsons sheds a light on a sickening crime that's had a lot less publicity. Child sex abuse by family members is far more common than most people think. But in one part of the North of England, West Yorkshire, the region's mayor, a children's charity and even a leading broadcaster want to help victims talk about their experience to stop other people going through the same ordeal they've had to endure. On a visit to the Leeds headquarters of Channel 4, which just hosted a powerful discussion about the need protect children from sexual abusers, Rob speaks to Emily Victoria, a businesswoman who confronted the abuse she suffered at her father's hands for a TV documentary. And Debra Radford of the NSPCC charity and West Yorkshire deputy mayor Alison Lowe talk about the region is aiming to lead the way on keeping girls safe. This episode might make you think a little differently about the recent grooming gangs coverage, particularly whether the media focus on a certain type of offending might be putting off the victims of other types of abuse from reporting what's happened to them. For help and support on preventing and dealing with child sexual abuse and exploitation, you can visit www.nspcc.org.uk or www.channel4.com/4viewers/help/child-abuse-or-harm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The North in Numbers takes over The Northern Agenda: Our Kids in the North for this episode, looking at the human stories behind the stats. Annie Gouk, Data Investigations Editor at Reach and host of our sister podcast, explores the data on the rising cost and lack of availability of childcare, and what this means both for working parents, and for kids when it comes to being ready for school.  She speaks to: ⬆️ Steve Rotheram, the Mayor of Liverpool City Region, on the masterplan to tackle staff shortages in Early Years education and childcare in the area. ⬆️ Lydia Hodges. head of Coram Family and Childcare, on the charity's survey charting the cost of a part time nursery place for a child under the age of two in the North ⬆️ Fiona Spellman, the CEO of SHINE, a charity covering the north of England that was set up to support children from disadvantaged backgrounds to perform better in their education, on the growing number of children starting reception not “school ready” ⬆️ Mothers Tui Benjamin Thorp and Katie Jones on trying to juggle work with childcare, especially with the soaring costs The Northern Agenda: Our Kids in the North is a Reach Studio production, presented by Rob Parsons with contributions from Annie Gouk. The podcast is produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our Kids in the North, a new series from The Northern Agenda, launched with a focus on the big societal problem that you can't escape if you're talking about children in the North of England: poverty. In the second episode of our podcast, Rob Parsons talks about a part of the country that has so much going for it, but where the high rates of poverty are holding back the potential of tens of thousands of young people. Nearly one in three child are living in poverty in the North East - but local leaders are now taking action themselves to give the region's children a better chance. Speaking to child poverty campaigners, entrepreneurs, top politicians, and charities who are helping reduce the effects of poverty, The Northern Agenda paints a concerning picture of the scale of the problem in the North East, but also highlights the determination of local leaders and communities to find innovative solutions to this pressing social issue. Rob Parsons speaks to: ⬆️ Kim McGuinness, the new mayor of the North East, about how she plans to tackle the root causes of poverty as well as helping families deal with the short term impacts. ⬆️ Paul Lindley, the Yorkshire-born founder of Ella's Kitchen, about why as a society we need to be switching our attention to our young people and take a much more entrepreneurial approach to finding the solutions that work. ⬆️ Sophie Balmer, a 21-year-old child poverty campaigner from Newcastle, about when she first realised she wanted to speak up on behalf of young people like her. ⬆️ Beth Major, chief executive of local charity The Junction, about the "multi-bank" that provides people struggling in the Tees Valley with surplus goods from companies and businesses, including clothes and hygiene products The Northern Agenda: Our Kids in the North is a Reach Studio production, presented by Rob Parsons with contributions from Annie Gouk. The podcast is produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Northern Agenda presents Our Kids In The North - a special series of episodes looking at what it's like to be a young person in the North of England. Over six episodes Rob Parsons and data journalist Annie Gouk will be exploring topics like the state of Northern schools, the early years of children in our region, why there are so many young people in care in the North and the options available to pupils after they leave school. There are 3.3 million people under the age of 18 in Northern England - and in this series we talk to articulate young people from places like Liverpool, Newcastle and Blackpool as well as the experts and political leaders who've made it their mission to improve their lives. But with one in three children in the North living below the poverty line - and the rate much higher in some areas - you can't talk about young people without first looking at the impact child poverty is having on our region. Rob speaks to two young people about how poverty is ruining the potential of countless lives across the region as well as a leading expert and medic at a Northern hospital which sees the effects of poverty every day. You can see Save The Children's Potential Not Poverty video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ5YXVenQAc Child of the North is a joint project between Health Equity North and the N8 Research Partnership offering a research and policy-based programme fighting for a fairer future for children wherever they grow up. Read more about it here: https://www.healthequitynorth.co.uk/child-of-the-north/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Northern Agenda editor Rob Parsons previews our brand new series, Our Kids in the North. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Northern Agenda podcast is changing - and our editor Rob Parsons shares the details! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the last five days the eyes of the political world have been focusing on Liverpool's waterfront for Labour party conference, its first in power for 15 years. Thousands of people have piled into venues around the city, from party members and MPs to business leaders, metro mayors and of course senior Cabinet members - many of whom are from the North - and their teams. Rob Parsons spent two days ducking in and out of fringe events and drinks receptions, as did Jo Timan of the Manchester Evening News and Ethan Davies, Local Democracy Reporter for Manchester. They chat about the rain-soaked conference vibes, Keir Starmer's personal speech, money worries for the Manchester to Liverpool train line and Lisa Nandy's love of Britney Spears. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

​I​f you're into politics it's likely you'll be heading to, or at the very least reading about, one of the big party conferences happening this autumn. By far the biggest is Labour's annual get-together in Liverpool, their first as a new government. ​A​nd anyone who's interested in the future direction of the Labour party will want to ​R​ob Parsons' interview with one of its most interesting new MPs, Josh Simons, MP for Makerfield in Greater Manchester​. ​H​e's a former advisor to Jeremy Corbyn and used to run ​t​he influential think-tank Labour Together, which has extremely close links to the current Keir Starmer government.  ​T​he loyal 'Starmtrooper' been earmarked by a lot of observers as one to watch in the new intake of MPs​.​ And on the podcast he talks about a fundamental shift in the way politics is done under the new government and his thoughts on the levelling up agenda and what Labour does to replace it.  And I​isteners will certainly have a view on his defence of Rachel Reeves over the first big controversy of the new Labour government, the cutting of the winter fuel allowance so it only goes to the poorest pensioners. ​A year on from Rishi Sunak's decision to axe the Northern leg of HS2 to Manchester, while giving a conference speech in Manchester, Rob speaks to a transport expert who's helped put together a report on what we can learn from the cancellation of the high speed rail project in the North.  Jonathan Spruce of the Institution of Civil Engineers talks about how we need to take the politics out of these huge infrastructure projects if they're ever going to succeed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Only a few weeks ago the big story in many of our Northern communities was the rioting and disorder we saw this summer, seemingly sparked by the horrific killing in Southport. We saw violence break out across the country but it seemed like much of it was in the North, places like Sunderland and Darlington, Blackpool, Hull, Preston and Liverpool. Since then we've seen a steady stream of the perpetrators hauled before the courts and in some instances handed hefty prison sentences. But with the dust now settled, how much do we understand about why the rioting spread so easily and why so many people - often with no previous history of criminal activity - decided to get involved? Rob Parsons speaks to Chris Read - council leader in Rotherham, where a hotel housing asylum seekers came under attack - and Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner Matt Storey about how the violence unfolded in their patch, what they think caused it and whether we can stop it happening again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's a definite 'back to school' feeling in the air in politics this week. The news agenda is already being dominated by the issues that we're going to be hearing about again and again in the coming months - small boats, the housing crisis and the ravaged state of the public finances. It's back to school for the North's politicians too, and with Westminster resuming after the summer break this week a new Labour MP, Hexham's Joe Morris, is leading not one but two debates in the Commons and has been telling his fellow MPs about the banking deserts that are worrying locals in his huge Northumberland constituency.​ He explains to Rob Parsons how he's been trying to fight for voters in an area that voted Tory for 100 years. Up in York this week, the North's political leaders have their own big event, launching the so-called manifesto for the North, a document setting out how the likes of Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and other elected leaders can work together to help our region thrive. And with perfect timing, a new report put together by Northern academics and experts sets out all too clearly just how badly half of our population is being let down by just how unequal our country is, from the moment they're born to the day they die. Rob speaks to ​Professor Kate Pickett, one of the authors of a new very hard-hitting report ‘Woman of the North: Inequality, health and work', which finds that women in the North of England live shorter lives, work more hours for less pay, are more likely to be an unpaid carer, and more likely to live in poverty than women in other regions of England. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Northern Agenda tries to think outside of the box when it comes to both our newsletter and podcast, and in this week's episode, our guest does exactly that.  Tina Catling is a renowned innovation consultant, author, and speaker, who advises organisations and people around the world on how to unlock creative potential and innovation. She has been running her Leeds-based business ThinkOTB with her partner Mark Davies for 30 years. She tells The Northern Agenda's Dan McLaughlin about her diagnosis of ADHD at the age of 61, and why she believes neurodiversity is a "superpower". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all know there's a big North-South divide when it comes to pay, but which part of the North of England has the highest average wage? Here's a clue, it's not Manchester or Leeds. With an average median annual full-time wage of nearly £42,000, Ribble Valley in Lancashire is the highest-paid local authority area in Northern England. Its residents earn an average of £14,000 a year more than those in Tameside, not too far away in Greater Manchester. The Ribble Valley is a beautiful district to the east of Preston, described as boasting "picturesque villages, soul-soothing countryside and warm-hearted inhabitants". And for foodies, it boasts several gastro pubs that are officially rated the very best the UK has to offer. Rob Parsons has never been and wants to put that right in this special episode. He heads to its main town Clitheroe to chat to locals about why the area's doing so well, the one thing that's worrying locals and intriguingly, why, if everything's so great, the area has just booted out its two Conservative MPs in favour of Labour politicians at the last General Election. The Northern Agenda is a Reach Studio production, produced and edited by Daniel J. McLaughlin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Politicians and pubs are a combination as old as the hills, with even the likes of teetotal e​x-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak turning up for photo shoots a​t​ local watering holes on the election trail this year. But if our decision-makers stuck about after the cameras disappeared and observed the conversations ordinary pub-goers were having, would they be better informed about their lives and what makes them tick? That's what Ed Shackle and Bertie Wnek, two researchers from policy, research, opinion and strategy consultancy Public First, have done, spending five days in pubs in Bolton to hear what kind of things punters talk about. ​They tell Rob Parsons why this kind of research brought them insights they'd never get from an opinion poll - and the surprising activity they found in virtually every Bolton pub no matter what time of day it was. Rob also speaks to David Skaith, the first elected metro mayor of York and North Yorkshire, about his 'whirlwind' first 100 days in the job. Find out what he's doing on buses and transport, housing and whether he'll challenge his own Labour government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So if you look at the biggest jobs in local government in the North of England, undoubtedly near the top of the list are the chief executives of the city councils of Manchester and Leeds. They're roles that come with responsibility for vital services in our region's two biggest cities, leading thousands of employees and overseeing annual budgets into the hundreds of millions. So with both Tom Riordan, chief executive of Leeds city council, and Joanne Roney, his counterpart in Manchester, set to leave their positions this year, it's a great opportunity to talk about the time in charge, what they've learned and what the future holds for our town halls after a turbulent and challenging last decade or so. Find out why they're expecting this year to be the toughest yet for setting town hall budgets, how our national housing crisis could be solved if the rest of the country was like Leeds and Manchester, and how the North keeps the lights on in London. Plus: Tom drops some hints about what job he's doing next... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just over a year ago, TransPennine Express, which runs intercity services across the North of England, became the latest to come under government control due to its dire performance that had infuriated political leaders and customers. Installed not long after as managing director was Chris Jackson, faced with some formidable hurdles to overcome if TransPennine was to get back on track, not least the refusal of unions to allow their staff to work on their days off and large number of their staff lacking the training for all its routes and trains. It's been a challenging year - and last autumn the company had to cut the number of trains it runs on its core Leeds-Manchester service and take part of its fleet out of service to ensure there were enough trained drivers to go round. But since then, it looks like TransPennine is on the road to recovery. But what does the future hold at a time when political leaders are keener than ever to get us out of our cars and onto public transport? On the Northern Agenda this week, Chris tells Rob Parsons how work is going on giving the North's rail passengers the service they need and deserve, plus exciting news on the UK's first intercity battery train. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On a brutal General Election night for the Conservatives, there were a few bright spots where their MPs managed to defy the swing to Labour and hang onto their seats. In the North East of England - where Labour otherwise swept the board - just one Conservative MP now remains, Matt Vickers, who won in the new seat of Stockton West despite pre-election polling which suggested it would turn red. He speaks to Rob Parsons about how he managed to defy the odds, what it's been like as a Tory MP since returning to Parliament and what the near Tory wipeout means for Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen. Meanwhile, Rob hears from the journalists behind a brilliant new podcast called Everything But a Beach, telling the fascinating hidden stories of Manchester you won't have learned about at school. Find out about 'God's copper' James Anderton, Manchester's scuttling gangs with names like the Bengal Tigers and the Meadow Lads, and where local words like ‘ticklebutt' and ‘arsewood' came from. You can listen to Everything But a Beach at https://everythingbutabeach.podbean.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doesn't it seem a long time ago that a victorious Boris Johnson took in the applause from Conservatives in Tony Blair's old seat of Sedgefield after winning a host of North East seats in Labour strongholds like Darlington, Redcar and Bishop Auckland in the 2019 General Election? Five years later, the Tories have been all but wiped out in the North East, reduced to just one seat. How did things go so badly wrong and is there a way back for the party in time for the next election? And was Rishi Sunak the right person to lead the party into the 2024 election? Rob Parsons speaks to Miranda Jupp, who up until a few days ago was chief of staff to Sir Simon Clarke, former Levelling Up Secretary and Conservative MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, who lost to Labour's Luke Myer by just 200 votes. And Rob takes a look under the bonnet of the North East of England, a region with so much going for it but with issues like poverty, economic inactivity and bad health continuing to plague it for decades. A new series of reports called Vital Signs single out the role civil society and the generosity of philanthropy can play in bridging the divide between the North East and the rest of the country. Rob Williamson, CEO of the Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, tells us more about the work. And you can read them for yourself at https://www.communityfoundation.org.uk/vital-signs/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's there's an induction like no other going on in Westminster's corridors of power, as dozens of newly-elected MPs from across the North are introduced to the bewildering intricacies and traditions of life in the epicentre of British democracy. But what's it been like for someone who a week ago was battling to be elected and now finds themselves rubbing shoulders with the nation's political leaders, hundreds of miles from home? Rob Parsons finds out from Lewis Atkinson, who last week was elected as the new Labour MP for Sunderland Central. He tells us about the white envelope with secret instructions that all new MPs get and how one aspect of life at Westminster pleasantly surprised him. And with the General Election already feeling like a distant memory in a frenetic first week for the Labour government, Rob chats to Jo Timan from the Manchester Evening News about Andy Burnham and Ben Houchen's trip to Downing Street and why it matters that Keir Starmer's Cabinet is filled with Northern MPs. Plus: Is Reform UK now the main opposition to Labour in Greater Manchester and the North East? Northern Agenda is a Laudable production for Reach. This week's episode is presented by Rob Parsons and produced by Celeste Adams. You can subscribe to the daily Northern Agenda newsletter here: http://www.thenorthernagenda.co.uk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's General Election night and Rob Parsons has got himself a front row seat for one of the highest-profile counts in the North: Rishi Sunak's Richmond and Northallerton constituency in North Yorkshire. With Sunak's Conservatives facing near certain defeat to Labour in the polls, the media is waiting for the Prime Minister to show his face in the early hours of the morning - and that's if he can hold onto what used to be a safe seat. Hear Rob's dispatch from election night, where he speaks to some of the quirkier candidates including an intergalactic space traveller called Count Binface and the hopefuls from Labour and Reform UK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week voters across the North will be going to the polls for the General Election with all the national polling pointing to a big Labour victory.  But Rob Parsons wants to hear what's happening at local level across the North of England and has reassembled a panel of top political journalists, Liam Thorp from the Liverpool Echo, Joseph Timan from the Manchester Evening News and Graeme Whitfield from the Journal in the North East. They discuss why voters in the North are so disillusioned, what Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak have been saying on their trips to our region...and perhaps most importantly their go-to snacks to keep them awake through a long election night. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the run-up to the General Election, we've heard so much from the likes of Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak, Nigel Farage and Ed Davey - wouldn't it be interesting to put the local candidates bidding for voters in the North in the spotlight for a change? This week on the Northern Agenda podcast, election rivals in the North East are taken to task over how they would combat soaring child poverty rates, the future of the NHS, pollution in our waterways, and more. Candidates from the five main parties contesting seats at the July 4 election took part in a special hustings hosted by ChronicleLive in Newcastle, two weeks before the UK goes to the polls. Clashing over issues including the two-child benefit cap and Tory plans for a new national service scheme were candidates Catherine McKinnell (Labour, Newcastle North), Nick Oliver (Conservative, Gateshead Central and Whickham), Natalie Younes (Liberal Democrat, North Northumberland), David Francis (Green, South Shields), and Lynn Murphy (Reform UK, Easington). As well as taking questions sent in by Chronicle readers during the debate, chaired by Journal editor Graeme Whitfield, a group of students from St Joseph's Academy in Hebburn also challenged the candidates on key issues affecting young people. *** Northern Agenda is a Laudable production for Reach. This week's episode is presented by Rob Parsons and produced by Celeste Adams. You can subscribe to the daily Northern Agenda newsletter here: http://www.thenorthernagenda.co.uk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're 40 years on from the so-called Battle of Orgreave, when thousands of picketing miners were attacked by riot police in South Yorkshire in what has been described as one of the most violent clashes in British industrial history, with police using ‘paramilitary' tactics. And to mark the occasion a new report, chronicling what campaigners say is decades of multi-agency cover up of state-orchestrated violence, has just been delivered to the leaders of the UK's main political parties and the Home Office. With Labour promising a new investigation if they get into power on July 4, will we finally learn the truth about what happened on June 18,1984? Rob Parsons spoke to Chris Peace from the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign. And after visiting Richmond in North Yorkshire last week, Rob goes about 100 miles south west to the seaside resort of Southport. It's the only area of Merseyside that doesn't have a Labour MP - but could that be about to change? And what, if anything, can politicians do to restore the fortunes of seaside resorts who are trying to reinvent themselves? *** Northern Agenda is a Laudable production for Reach. This week's episode is presented by Rob Parsons and produced by Celeste Adams. You can subscribe to the daily Northern Agenda newsletter here: http://www.thenorthernagenda.co.uk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

​W​e're three weeks into the General Election campaign and Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives are staring down the barrel of an historic defeat that will see them reduced to just a handful of seats in the North of England and potentially scrapping with the Lib Dems and Reform UK to be the opposition to the next Labour government. It's been a torrid week for ​t​he Prime Minister - who's been hammered from all sides for skipping out of the D-Day 80th anniversary events early. So where better to get the view of voters than​ his own North Yorkshire constituency, home to the country's biggest Army base​? That's what​ Rob Parsons did - before the big D-Day row kicked off - to hear from voters in the market town of Richmond and find out about the hidden poverty in what most people consider a safe and leafy Tory seat. He also speaks to Jim Blagden, Associate Director for Research and Insights at More in Common, the think-tank founded after the murder of Yorkshire MP Jo Cox in 2016, about Labour's manifesto launch in Manchester, why the Tories lost the red wall and who exactly is 'Whitby Woman'. *** Northern Agenda is a Laudable production for Reach. This week's episode is presented by Rob Parsons and produced by Celeste Adams. You can subscribe to the daily Northern Agenda newsletter here: http://www.thenorthernagenda.co.uk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the next few weeks there's really only one story in town politics-wise and that's the 2024 General Election - the one that seems to have been on the horizon for months but in the end came quite unexpectedly with an announcement by Rishi Sunak in a rain-drenched Downing Street. Since then it's been a non-stop flurry of campaign stops, photo opportunities, social media blitzes and behind-closed-doors selections as political activists go hell-for-leather to boost their prospects ahead of the big day on July 4. There's no shortage of great analysis of the election but Rob Parsons wanted to get a really Northern perspective on what's happening and find out about some of the contests you might not be hearing about in the national media. He's joined by three of Reach Plc colleagues keeping an eye on politics across the North: Liam Thorp from the Liverpool Echo, Joseph Timan from the Manchester Evening News and Graeme Whitfield, editor for the Journal in the North East. Find out why the ITV debate from Salford was massively frustrating, the seats to watch in Northern England and why there should be ice cream for hungry journalists on all campaign stops. And can we make some dad jokes about Taylor Swift? *** Northern Agenda is a Laudable production for Reach. This week's episode is presented by Rob Parsons, and produced by Celeste Adams. You can subscribe to the daily Northern Agenda newsletter here: http://www.thenorthernagenda.co.uk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ahead of the General Election on July 4th, we're taking a look at one of the key policies from the 2019 Conservative manifesto.  Levelling up promised to boost Britain's “left behind” areas, and helped Boris Johnson storm to victory as voters in former Labour heartlands turned to the Tories in droves.  You can find out more by listening to our episode from April 2022, titled “Levelling up: what it really means for the north” But have the Conservatives actually managed to deliver on their promise since then? The North in Numbers takes over the podcast this week, with Annie Gouk speaking to local leaders, policy experts and academics to find out how it's going. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Rob Parsons joins 13,000 (mostly blue suit-wearing) delegates from the business and political worlds at a major property conference in Leeds - the UK's Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum. ​The likes of Angela Rayner and Alastair Campbell were among the speakers at the three-day event at Leeds' Royal Armouries - which saw hectic networking amid the torrential downpours as local leaders pitched for investment to get major projects off the ground. It was an event that showed how much the North's politicians need private investment to make their local areas thrive. And Rob talks over some of the highlights with Alistair Houghton, editor of the Business Live website, and Manchester Local Democracy Reporter Ethan Davies. Also listen out to hear about a fascinating new book about Manchester, a city whose recent economic growth and gleaming skyscrapers attract envious glances from many parts of the North, even if they wouldn't admit it publicly. Brian Groom, author of the best-selling 'Northerners', talks about his latest offering 'Made In Manchester: A People's History of the City that Shaped the Modern World'. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most of us spend our days with a mobile phone practically glued to our hand - in fact you may well be listening to this podcast on it right now. And it's becoming more and more common for children to have a smart phone, some even before they start at secondary school. But there are more and more people who are terrified at what the ubiquity of smart phones and social media is doing to our children's minds, their mental health and their ability to learn. And one of the politicians articulating those fears most vocally is an MP in South Yorkshire, Miriam Cates, who this week led a debate at Westminster calling on the Government to take urgent action before it's too late. Rob Parsons speaks to her and also a former Yorkshire headteacher whose school introduced an effective ban on smart phones because of what it was doing to students' behaviour.  And he chats to Local Democracy Reporter Dan Holland about one of the more interesting developments in Northern politics this week, namely the relationship between civic and business leaders in the North East of England and the oil-rich Gulf state of Saudi Arabia. We know Manchester's booming economy has been achieved thanks in large part to massive private investment encouraged by city leaders, including the Abu Dhabi royal family who now own Manchester City Football Club. But is something similar on the verge of happening in the football-mad city of Newcastle - and why are many in the North opposed to it? The Northern Agenda is a Laudable production for Reach. It is presented by Rob Parsons, and produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin. You can subscribe to the daily Northern Agenda newsletter here: http://www.thenorthernagenda.co.uk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're a week on from the local and mayoral elections and the dust is still settling on a set of results which dealt another major blow to Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives. And it was the election of metro mayors - the political figureheads for big regions like the North East, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire - which made most of the headlines. But while most Westminster pundits - and Rishi Sunak himself, are preoccupied with what these results mean for the upcoming General Election, there's a lot less attention being paid to the mayors themselves. Who are they, what are their policies and why are people voting for them, if they bother to vote at all? And do they really know how to run their regions better than Westminster? This week as the new mayors got back to work after the elections Rob Parsons speaks to one of them, South Yorkshire's Oliver Coppard, about why he's prioritising transport in his second term.  And Rob gets the bigger picture with three brilliant guests: Jen Williams, Northern Correspondent for the Financial Times, who wrote a great piece last week about how the mayoral elections mark a milestone for English devolution and has taken a particular interest in the affairs of Tees Valley Ben Houchen.  Gill Morris, executive chair of Devo Inflect, the UK's leading devolution public affairs agency.  Professor Katy Shaw from Northumbria University is one of the experts who helped write Gordon Brown's commission on the UK's future, setting out plans for sweeping constitutional change, which Labour leader Keir Starmer has promised to implement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Parsons reports from a​ sports hall in the town of Thornaby-on-Tees - where he's witnessed perhaps the only bright spot for Rishi Sunak in what ​w​as a miserable local and mayoral election night for his Conservative Party. ​T​he Tories ​look to be on course to lose 500 local election seats in what could be their worst showing in 40 years.​ They were thrashed in the Blackpool South by-election and even managed to lose the mayoral race in Rishi Sunak's backyard in North Yorkshire. ​But there was a silver lining in the form of ​Ben Houchen, described by many as the poster-boy for Conservatism in the North of England, who was re-elected mayor of the Tees Valley region but saw his majority over Labour dramatically cut, ​securing almost 82,000 votes compared with the 63,000 votes received by Labour's Chris McEwan.   Rob hears directly from Lord Houchen after his victory and watches a remarkable confrontation between the mayor and one of his main critics, journalist Richard Brooks of Private Eye. There's also voice notes from local journalists Joseph Timan in Greater Manchester and Susan Newton at the Blackpool South by-election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Rob Parsons focuses on the parts of the country where millions of us live - the so-called coalfield or ex-mining communities - and find out what the future holds for them. There's a new report out this week from the Coalfields Regeneration Trust setting out how the areas whose miners used to power industrial Britain are still lagging behind the big cities when it comes to jobs. But crucially they have a vision for how they can catch up, and Rob speaks to Andy Lock from the charity to hear what needs to happen. Also, there's a week to go until large parts of the North go to the polls on May 2 and there's plenty on the line - not just in places like the Tees Valley and North East which are electing metro mayors but also towns and cities where control of local councils is at stake. But where are the most interesting races in the North and how much do they matter? Rob is joined by Jonathan Carr-West, Chief Executive of the Local Government Information Unit - a not-for-profit organisation which produces an annual report on the local council elections to watch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Which political story should we be paying more attention to: the saga of Angela Rayner's council house in Stockport or that of Lancashire MP Mark Menzies, who is accused of using political donations to cover medical expenses and pay off “bad people” who had locked him in a flat and demanded thousands of pounds for his release? This week Rob Parsons compares the merits of these two stories with the Liverpool Echo's Liam Thorp. Meanwhile Liam tells us why he believes it was right to identify two local politicians who failed to pay council tax and why 'XL Gullies' are proving a menace to hungry workers in Liverpool city centre. PLUS: Regular listeners to the podcast will have heard about lots of different examples of the North of England being on the wrong end of stark regional inequality. But it's still shocking to find out there are big differences in the numbers of vulnerable children going into care between our region and other parts of the country. A new report sets out how one in every 52 children in Blackpool is in care compared with one in 140 across England, while the North of England accounts for just over a quarter (28%) of the child population, but more than a third (36%) of the children in care. There's a human cost but an economic one too. Researchers for Health Equity North say if the North of England had experienced the same rates of children entering care as the South between 2019 and 2023, “it would have saved at least £25 billion”. To find out why this is happening Rob speaks to one of the authors of the report, Professor David Taylor-Robinson from the University of Liverpool. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week​,​ Rob Parsons speaks to an author who's asked the question: How did the North become a place of lost potential and broken dreams? And what can be done to make it one of the most dynamic and forward-looking places in the world once again? Alex Niven is the man behind the book The North Will Rise Again, which covers the colourful adventures of its inhabitants, the expansiveness and optimism that defines Northern culture, A native Northerner himself, having returned to his home city of Newcastle with his family in the last few years, Alex explores issues like radical regionalism, Northern identity austerity, the impact of Brexit, the collapse of Labour's 'Red Wall', and calls for regional devolution. ​Meanwhile, with a General Election coming this year and Labour miles ahead in the polls, ​i​t's high time we scrutinised what a change of Government might mean for the North of England. It's been very easy for Keir Starmer's Labour Party to slam the failings of levelling up and the promises of the Boris Johnson Government that failed to materialise, but voters up here deserve to know exactly what the Opposition would do differently if they got into power. So how much do we know about Labour's policies which might affect the North? Someone who's been looking at just that subject is Joseph Timan, political writer for the Manchester Evening News​,​ he tells Rob what we've learned. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week the Northern Agenda podcast comes from the headquarters of the North East's Chronicle and Journal newspapers in the centre of Newcastle for a special mayoral hustings edition. In a month's time one of the five people speaking to Rob Parsons over the conference room table will be the new elected mayor of the North East. They'll have powers and funding - some £4.2bn over 30 years - to impact the lives of millions of people in a huge patch stretching from Berwick to Barnard Castle. So the stakes will be high when voters across Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland pick their preferred candidate - meaning there is all the more reason to know who they are and what they'll do if they get into power. Joining Rob Parsons for the hustings is Jamie Driscoll, the independent candidate who is currently mayor of the North of Tyne, university archivist Andrew Gray standing for the Green Party and Dr Aidan King, who works at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary for the Liberal Democrats. Labour's candidate is Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness and for the Conservatives we have Northumberland County Councillor Guy Renner Thompson. Sunderland councillor Paul Donaghy, who is Reform UK's candidate, couldn't make it so has sent in a recorded message. Hear them set out how they'd approach the job and their position on the big issues that will likely matter to voters, including answers to questions sent in by Chronicle and Journal readers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices