Boris Johnson will struggle to unite ‘blue wall’ MPs and shire Tories on Brexit, planning reform, ‘wars on woke’ and more
The Conservative party’s north-south divide isn’t just about lockdown. It’s in the party itself. As the newly formed Northern Research Group (NRG) of Tory MPs representing Wales, the north of England and the Scottish borders pressures Boris Johnson to do more to help their regions, a divide is forming in the party between the two sides.
As a general rule, northern Tory MPs tend to have been elected more recently, represent a higher number of blue-collar workers in their constituencies and be more unambiguously pro-Brexit. By contrast, southern Tory MPs tend to occupy seats that have been Tory for decades and represent more affluent voters – though obviously this doesn’t apply to all of them; left-behind coastal communities in the south have more in common with those in the “red wall”. The difference between the two Tory tribes stretches from coronavirus funding to planning reform and culture wars.
