Thread by @DavidLammy

No Frank Field, my constituents are not "well provided for." 34% of Haringey residents are in poverty, we've had £280 million cuts from local budgets and 791 knife crime offences last year. Not to mention black youth unemployment is over 2X average.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…

This is a slap in the face to Labour's inner city voters. Your argument relies on the false idea that all leave voters were from the industrial north. Actually most Brexit voters were from the Tory south: every part of the South except London voted Leave. theguardian.com/politics/ng-in…

Northern industrial areas were decimated by Thatcher. When she took power unemployment was at 1 million but that quickly tripled to 3 million in the early 80s. The proportion in the country living below the poverty line rose from 13% to 43%.

Labour tried to restore these areas with regional development agencies and public sector investment - spending over £2 billion per year on development in these regions in the later years of Labour government. Private sector still struggled. The Coalition government scrapped them.

The 2008 crisis hit northern former industrial areas hardest, with the manufacturing sector losing 8.5% of its jobs. Tory austerity which followed dealt another disproportionate blow to the North, with spending falling by £6.3bn since 2009/10, while it rose in the South.

Throughout this period EU direct investment has been one of the most reliable sources of funding. The North East alone received £1.1 billion in direct investment from the EU in the 5 years before 2016 - not to mention the 100,000 jobs in the region reliant on exports to Europe.

I take no lectures from MPs happy to sell their constituencies down the river to take a one-off cash injection from the Tories. It won't make up for the disproportionate losses in GDP. Even with an FTA, the North West will shrink by 8%, the NE by 11%.
news.sky.com/story/hit-to-n…

Westminster, not Brussels, is responsible for these vast regional imbalances. Yes, we need to redistribute across the country, but impoverishing these regions through Brexit does the opposite. Labour MPs should show courage and say all this - not allow May to divide and rule.