| On the campaign trail in Workington yesterday, Sir Keir Starmer was schooled on the intricacies of Uppies and Downies, a traditional ball game with no rules played in the Cumbrian town for centuries. It was curiously fitting, as the Labour leader and the Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson headed North from Westminster to lobby for local election votes after weeks of scandal and fluctuating fortunes for the nation's political leaders. For his part, the PM spoke to students and apprentices in engineering at Burnley College, in a former Labour stronghold now held by the Conservatives. And while for both the cost-of-living crisis was at the forefront of their message to local voters, they had very different spins on how best to approach the issue likely to be at the forefront of many minds at the ballot box next Thursday.  Boris Johnson operates a robotic arm to grab plastic objects, during a visit to Burnley College
Mr Johnson claimed the Tories were making "colossal" investments in public services and offered better value for money than Labour-run councils. He fell back on the disputed claims about the benefits of his £96 billion Integrated Rail Plan and new hospitals being built in the North West. And he spelled out a vision for an economy led by the kind of high-wage, high-skilled jobs created by Burnley College. The PM told reporters: "I think what this election is about is who delivers value for money across the country. Who delivers better services. This election on Thursday, just a week's time, is about dynamic Conservative councillors offering better value for money and making sure your pot-holes get filled in. "Making sure your bins are collected when you need them collected. But doing it in a way that respects the importance of tax-payer value at a time when there's pressure on family budgets, it's more important than ever we council tax as low as we can." Sir Keir repeated his call for a windfall tax on oil and gas companies in the North Sea which he said would help those struggling the most by up to £600. And he said: "Right now, people are really concerned about their energy bills, their fuel bills, their food bills all going up, their wages not going up and, if you can believe it, the Government has chosen this moment, this week, to impose new tax on them – national insurance tax. "So, people will be looking at their pay slip this week and thinking, 'I can't afford my bills and the Government is now taking even more money from me in tax'. I think, if anything, it demonstrates the Government is totally out of touch with the concerns of working people across the country." 
 The mine in Cumbria would be UK's first deep coal mine in 30 years (Image: West Cumbria Mining Company)
Controversial forms of energy generation were high on the agenda too. Amid reports that Michael Gove is planning to approve a controversial new coal mine in Cumbria, Sir Keir said this was "not the way forward". He said: "The really good new generation jobs are in tech, digital, mechanics etc and they are all in nuclear and renewable so what I would say is let's grow those opportunities and not reopen this mine." And asked about whether the Government would commit to restarting fracking and reopening Lancashire's shale gas wells, the Prime Minister said it would only be considered 'if it could be done safely'.
With less than a week to go until the local elections, what could their impact be on the prospects of the two main parties in the North's so-called 'red wall' seats? In an essential run-through for The Northern Agenda, former Labour head of political strategy Greg Cook and former party director Declan McHugh look at the local races to watch across the North. Scroll to the bottom of this email to read the full article.
University cancel culture 'not really a massive problem'  Professor Helen Marshall and Damien Moore MP are guests on The Northern Agenda podcast
A senior Northern university leader has hit out at the government's plan to introduce fines for 'cancel culture' on campuses. Education Minister Michelle Donelan says she intends to bring forward new laws to crack down on 'woke mobs' that are apparently preventing debate at universities and said "increasingly, university is a place where you are told what to think rather than taught how to think". But University of Salford Vice Chancellor Professor Helen Marshall was sceptical of the plan. Speaking on this week's edition of The Northern Agenda podcast, she said: "It's not a massive problem, I think the government needs to be a bit more realistic. "It's not a space that I would support if I'm honest", she told our Westminster Editor Dan O'Donoghue. But, Prof Marshall did support the principle of open debate at universities. She said: "If someone is going to come and do a controversial speech, then that's leading to a debate on something controversial, which leads to a way forward. If we don't talk about it and we bury it in sand, I think that is potentially down the line a bigger problem."
This week's podcast also hears from Southport's Tory MP Damien Moore, who is launching a public appeal asking people to help Imperial War Museums make a lasting record of the nation's war memorials by Remembrance Day on November 11. The War Memorials Register currently holds records of 96,000 war memorials across the UK, although there are an estimated 110,000 in total. Photographs are an important part of the register, but currently around 46,000 of the existing records are lacking good images. Mr Moore told us: "War memorials are found in cities, towns, villages, you see them on roadsides, you see them in factories, you see them all over the place, commemorating the various wars and the lives of our servicemen and women that have taken part in wars, right throughout our history. It's important they are recorded for posterity and people know that they're there."
'To Trump, I was just a middle-aged woman with a funny accent'  Fiona Hill, the National Security Council's former senior director for Europe and Russia (Image: Getty Images)
She grew up in Bishop Auckland before earning degrees at St Andrews and Harvard universities and embarking on a high-flying career in the US as an expert in Russian and European affairs. And Fiona Hill, the County Durham born national security expert who advised Presidents Bush and Obama before serving Donald Trump, has shone a light on the inner workings of Trump's White House. Dr Hill says Trump dismissed her almost from day one as "a middle-aged woman with a funny accent". The coal miner's daughter told of her "irritation" at seeing Trump interrupt and patronise former Prime Minister Theresa May on his visits to the UK. She told Sky News: "When people say you advised Trump, I didn't advise him on anything. In fact, very few people did because he didn't really listen to advice and he just wasn't particularly interested. "He had a kind of a vision of who should be an advisor anyway and it certainly wasn't a middle aged woman with a funny accent. So right from the very beginning, it was basically, who are you? What could you possibly know about any of this?"
A million people in the North face paying more income tax  Campaigners dressed as Rishi Sunak protest outside the Treasury office in London
More than a million people across the North are set to be dragged into paying higher rates of income tax by 2025, new research has revealed. House of Commons Library analysis found that Rishi Sunak's decision to freeze the income tax personal allowance level and higher rate threshold will mean 310,000 lower earners in the North West, 250,000 in Yorkshire and 110,000 in the North East will be paying higher tax by 2025/26. The research also highlighted that more than 400,000 middle-income earners in the region will find themselves moved into the 40p 'higher rate' band, writes Dan O'Donoghue. Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey, who commissioned the research, said: "Families across the North West are already struggling with a cost of living emergency. But instead of helping, Rishi Sunak is clobbering them with years of unfair tax rises." However, the Government has defended the threshold freezes. In a speech to the Bright Blue think tank, Treasury minister Lucy Frazer said the tax burden on individuals was forecast to be the lowest in the G7 which was "a result of generous allowances on income tax and relatively moderate rates for both income tax and national insurance contributions".
Meanwhile, a new study out today highlights how the North West is one of the most popular destinations for private capital investment, with more than 170,000 people in the region in jobs backed by private equity and venture capital. The findings of a study from EY – commissioned by the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) found two million jobs are supported by private capital in the UK - around 6% of all UK jobs. The North West is home to the largest number of private capital-backed jobs outside London and the South East. The study was launched during a visit to a British Engineering Services' training centre in Warrington by BVCA DIrector General Michael Moore.
Long Covid leaving many 'suffering in silence'  A volunteer outside a covid-19 testing facility in Stockton's Wellington Square. Pic: Teesside Live
"Although we might have Covid in the rear view mirror, you can still get hit from behind." Those were the words of a senior Stockton-on-Tees councillor as it emerged that Long covid has left more than 13,000 people in the borough living with the after-effects of the illness. Figures revealed at Stockton council's health and wellbeing board offered some sense of the scale of post-Covid illness in the borough, which has seen higher than average Covid rates throughout the pandemic. Projects have been launched across Teesside and Stockton in a bid to help those struggling. The board heard how a project delivered by the Pioneering Care Partnership was offering one-to-one support over a 12-week programme with goals and milestones for those seeking to recover. Board chairman Jim Beall was pleased there were measures in place – but recognised there was more to do to improve access and awareness of help available for those who could be "suffering in silence".
One of Leeds' top public health experts has suggested some university students have "lost their ability to interact" because of the pandemic. Dr John Beal said two years of online lectures and the absence of face-to-face socialising had deeply affected the mental health of the city's students. The chair of the pressure group Healthwatch Leeds said a conversation he'd had with a local university chaplain had highlighted the full extent of the problem. Research by the charity Mind last August reported 34% of young people saying the pandemic had made their mental health worse.
Port operators count the cost as post-Brexit checks delayed again  Minister for Brexit Opportunities Jacob Rees-Mogg speaking in Blackpool last month
Hull's port health boss has described the latest delay to physical post-Brexit border checks on European Union goods arriving in the UK as "deeply worrying". The checks were due to start on July 1 after a series of postponements by the government. Now the implementation of controls on food and animal products from the EU have been put back for the fourth time until at least 2023. Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said the delay was necessary because of higher costs being caused by the war in Ukraine and rising energy prices. But some UK port operators are reported to be considering legal action to recover the costs of building new border control posts. A new multi-million pound border control post has been built at King George Dock in Hull with the expectation that physical inspection of meat imports from the EU would start there in July with checks on dairy products starting in September followed by all remaining food from November. Before Brexit, no border checks were required on such items because the UK was part of the EU's frictionless trading regime, writes Angus Young of HullLive. Full story here. 
Sign up to The Northern Agenda Has a friend forwarded you this edition of The Northern Agenda? You can sign up to receive the latest email newsletter direct to your inbox every weekday by clicking on this link.  Northern Stories  The artwork is proposed for an affordable housing development in Staithes, north of Whitby
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A proposed public artwork could see the erection of an upright whale tail sculpture, marking the contribution of the animal and the whaling and tourism industries to North Yorkshire's past and present economy. York Housing Association has commissioned renowned artist and blacksmith Katie Ventress to reinforce the cultural heritage of the local coastline beside its affordable housing development in Staithes, north of Whitby. Between 1753 and 1837 a total of 58 whaling ships sailed from Whitby alone during this period, on a total of 577 voyages. -
Disgraced Imran Ahmad Khan is expected to cease being Wakefield's MP three weeks after being convicted of sexually assaulting a boy following a delay in his resignation. The Treasury is understood to have received his resignation letter and it is expected that he will officially leave Parliament on Tuesday, meaning he will receive full pay for April. Khan said he sent the letter triggering the process on Monday, despite having announced his resignation on April 14 while coming under pressure to stand down. -
Manchester University has been ordered to stop the transportation of all radioactive material by a watchdog. The Office for Nuclear Regulation served a Prohibition Notice on the University following a routine transport compliance inspection of the University's Oxford Road premises on April 6. The University infrequently transports very small quantities of radioactive materials to approved partner institutions for academic research and analysis. -
An independent councillor has resigned a week after the Labour Party rejected his membership application. Lee Garvey has stepped down from his role as the independent councillor for Berwick Hills and Pallister on Middlesbrough Council. Last week it was revealed that the Labour Party had rejected Cllr Garvey's application to be a member because of allegations of anti-Semitism regarding social media posts in 2015, writes Local Democracy Reporter Emily Craigie. -
A failed HMRC investigation into tax fraud by a Hartlepool company was bungled due to "different approaches" in gathering evidence by the department and the Environment Agency, says a report by the National Audit Office. Operation Nosedive was a £3m "first of its kind" investigation by HMRC into firms including waste management business Niramax. The six-year sting led to raids by 180 tax officers and 14 arrests, but the operation closed without any charges being brought. -
The leader of East Riding Council's ruling Conservative group has seen off a leadership challenge after winning re-election. Jonathan Owen was re-elected as leader of the Conservative group at its AGM, writes Local Democracy Reporter Joseph Gerrard, with former cabinet member David Tucker running against him. The yearly meeting of the group also saw Anne Handley elected as deputy leader after her predecessor John Holtby stood down from the post. 
Opinion By Greg Cook and Declan McHugh Northern elections will test Tory strength in the 'Red Wall'  The local elections will test whether Labour leader Keir Starmer's message is breaking through
The local elections on May 5 mark the half-way point of the current parliament and with the Conservatives now well behind in the opinion polls they will prove a stern test of the Prime Minister's electoral appeal. The bulk of the contests are in Scotland, Wales and London where every single councillor is being elected, but for those who will be analysing their significance for the next general election as much attention will be focused on the North of England. Tory gains in this part of the country, many of them seats which they had never won before, were responsible for Boris Johnson's 80 seat majority in 2019 and these elections will be one of the few opportunities to assess whether the Red Wall, as these seats are collectively known, is sticking with the Prime Minister or whether Keir Starmer's message is breaking through. One of the more vulnerable sections of the Red Wall is in the north of Greater Manchester where the Tories hold six of the ten seats in Bury, Bolton, Rochdale and Wigan, four of which would be lost on a swing of only 1% to Labour in the general election. Of these four councils, however, only Bolton has so far slipped from Labour's grasp but this year they will also be concerned about Bury where their overall majority is just five seats and every councillor is up for election. The two constituencies in Bury are on paper among Labour's easiest potential regains and the defection of MP Christian Wakeford should have made their task even easier in Bury South, so to lose the council would be a severe embarrassment to Keir Starmer. With the Tories behind in the polls the main challenger to Labour in much of Greater Manchester will once again be the Liberal Democrats who have been performing well recently in local by-elections, for example winning a former Labour seat in Manchester's Ancoats & Beswick. Their focus will be on Stockport where the Lib Dems will want to entrench their position as the largest party and where they have two former parliamentary seats which they want to regain, but they have pockets of support in most boroughs and may make significant net gains across the North. Labour will be looking for progress in East Lancashire, especially Burnley, where they have lost both their MP their majority on the council, and in Hyndburn where several councillors have recently left the party. They also need only two extra seats to regain the Rossendale Borough. Further north there are elections for two new unitary authorities in the county of Cumbria; Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness, which are replacing the county council and six districts. The likeliest outcome is that no party will win an overall majority in either but the elections are again a crucial test for all three major parties. For the first time in over one hundred years Labour does not have a single MP in the county but they will want at least to be the largest party in Cumberland. Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron will also want to ensure that he retains a large group of councillors in Westmorland & Furness with the abolition of the Lib Dem-controlled South Lakeland District.  Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron will want to keep a large group of councillors in Cumbria
Despite their lead in the national polls Labour will probably find it hard to translate that into many new councils, especially in the North of England. One possible gain is in Kirklees borough in Yorkshire which contains two of their 2019 losses; Colne Valley and Dewsbury. But the Lib Dems need just three gains in Kingston-upon-Hull to snatch that council from Labour control, while there is also a real possibility that the Labour stronghold of Sunderland could be lost to a combination of Lib Dem and Tory gains. The latter is just a few miles north of Hartlepool where the Conservatives won a sensational by-election victory just a year ago and where the loss of Sunderland Council, while on balance unlikely, would be another huge blow in Labour's old heartlands of the North East. Labour will probably be relieved that there are no elections this year in Liverpool where commissioners appointed by the government are running the authority and the turmoil in their local party has continued with the recent resignation of several local councillors. They will hope at least not to lose any more seats in Wirral where the Greens have recently been picking up seats, while in Sefton the main parties will all be slugging it out in Southport which is one of the few three-way marginal constituencies in the country. Once the local elections are out of the way, the main parties will shift their attention to the Wakefield parliamentary by-election caused by the resignation of Conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan. This is really a "must-win" for Labour who held the seat continuously from 1945 to 2019. The 3.8% swing which they need to win it would be sufficient for the Conservatives to lose their overall majority nationally, but it would still mean they had well over 300 MPs, so the Labour have to win Wakefield by a comfortable margin to convince sceptics that they are competitive once again. But no leader can afford to become an election loser, and Red Wall Conservative MPs will be looking closely at all these results to assess whether the Prime Minister is still the best person to lead them to victory next time. Greg Cook was Labour's head of polling and political strategy for over 20 years. Declan McHugh is a former Labour special adviser and party director. They are both consultants for Helm (www.helmpartners.co.uk), the strategy and communications agency. 
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