Don’t say ‘levelling up’, election advisers tell Tory MPs
Conservative MPs in key marginal seats have been told to stop using the phrase “levelling up” because no one knows what it means.
Instead party staff have advised them to use phrases including “stepping up”, “gauging up” or “enhancing communities”, one Tory told The Times (£).
He added: “They have been told they have to drop levelling up from all their literature.”
Conservative MPs in key marginal seats have been told to stop using the phrase “levelling up” because no one knows what it means.
Instead party staff have advised them to use phrases including “stepping up”, “gauging up” or “enhancing communities”, one Tory told The Times (£).
He added: “They have been told they have to drop levelling up from all their literature.”
A second MP said: “The session is about language and they want us to still point to the projects, but levelling up as a phrase? It’s clear no one knows what it actually means.”
Lisa Nandy, shadow levelling up secretary, said: “Forget ‘stepping up’ or ‘gauging up’ – ‘screwing up’ would be more accurate. Since the last election regional inequality has got worse and nearly every levelling up promise has been broken.”
Speaking to the Institute for Government’s conference Nandy said Labour would abandon the government’s levelling up “missions”. “Who can argue with the levelling up missions? But that is precisely why they offer so little,” she said. “We will replace the current levelling up missions. Because, apart from anything else, it is fundamentally dishonest to introduce measures of success without definition, ambition clarity or even the faintest idea of how you meet them.”
To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews
