Manchester had the perfect response to Boris – they know his no-deal Brexit could lay waste to the north

Egotists like Trump, Johnson and Farage need the roar of the crowd to validate their egos. The most telling moment of Boris Johnson’s speech on Saturday at Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum, was when he beseeched the audience: “feel free to applaud.” His plea came after his re-announcements of the high-speed rail link between Leeds and Manchester, and more money for towns, fell flat and was met with silence.

And who could blame the audience for shrugging at his cod-Churchillian rhetoric? For them it was deja vu.

They were there in 2014 when George Osborne, the chancellor, promised to “make the cities of the north a powerhouse for our economy again”. Earlier this year, Osborne slammed the government’s lack of vision, saying that “it’s hard to think of a single original idea that has come out of this Downing Street to advance the Northern Powerhouse”. Such has been the frustration in the north that 33 regional newspapers launched a “Power Up the North” campaign, to hold politicians to account and rebalance the north-south divide.

When the new Tory PM told them this time would be different, it is easy to understand their apprehension. This is the Boris Johnson who squandered £53m of taxpayers’ money on a garden bridge that was never built. The same Boris Johnson Esq who avoided the difficult issue of Heathrow expansion with a harebrained fantasy island airport, and whose contribution to London’s infrastructure was not Crossrail – that was planned and financed by a Labour government – but a bus that overheated and a cable car nobody uses.

Manchester is a Labour-run city founded on hard work, innovation and neighbourliness. Johnson talked of the streets being safe; affordable homes; jobs that pay good wages and public services that support families and the vulnerable. But we know that charm and conviviality are no substitute for competence. Homelessness is not solved by optimism. Childcare is not paid for with hope.

We know Johnson cannot deliver, because, after his massacre of the moderates, he leads the most right-wing, ideologically driven nationalist government the country has ever seen. His promise to leave the EU with no deal will hit the north. Nobody with our region’s best interests at heart should contemplate it. A falling pound has already pushed up prices for every family’s weekly shop. Tariffs will devastate the north’s farmers, car makers and banking sector. There will be fewer jobs, less trade and less money for councils who have already seen their budgets halved. It will limit the opportunities for our children and harm the fight against crime.

The cost of the Leeds-to-Manchester high speed rail route will be dwarfed by the costs to the north if the UK leaves with no deal. Over £4bn has already been spent on no-deal planning. No deal means no rail link. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility predicts the UK would enter recession next year if there was no deal. Years of austerity have shown what Conservatives do in recession – cut back. Devolution would simply mean fighting for a piece of a much smaller pie.

We have three months to stop a prime minister with no mandate from the British people, elected by just 0.25 per cent of the population, crashing our country out of the EU with no deal. He has no mandate for no deal.

As voters, we must follow our regional newspapers and hold this government to account. We can not allow ourselves to be fed the scraps of a project that was launched five years ago. Instead we must demand the power to ensure its delivery and a government focused on doing so – not one threatening it with a no-deal Brexit.

Johnson’s chief of staff, Dominic Cummings, argued two years ago there was a strong democratic case for a confirmatory referendum once the terms of any deal were known. He was right.

If you believe in democracy, taking back control and avoiding a disastrous no deal that would harm the Northern Powerhouse, support our call for a people’s vote. Let us be heard.

Mary Creagh is the Labour MP for Wakefield