Government Minister, metro mayors, journalists and political advisors all gathered in orange hi-vis jackets at a rail depot in Leeds today to hear an announcement by Rachel Reeves they hope will be a game-changer for the North's transport links.
Leeds MP Ms Reeves has promised the Government will set aside £45bn to pay for Northern Powerhouse Rail, the project designed to speed up rail links between the North's big cities. But after so many broken promises, does anyone in the North believe it will actually happen?
On a special edition of the Northern Agenda podcast, Rob Parsons speaks to the Chancellor about why this project is personal for her and what it will mean for the North's economy.
Rail Minister Peter Hendy explains what the announcement will mean for the North's commuters - and are metro mayors Andy Burnham and Tracy Brabin happy with what they've heard?

The Northern Agenda is a Reach production, presented by Rob Parsons and produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin.

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The Northern Agenda podcast goes on location this week, broadcast from the home of the Liverpool Echo as Labour party conference comes to town.
Rob Parsons and Liam Thorp are joined by Jo Timan of the Manchester Evening as they assess a 'flat', 'anxious' and 'confused' annual gathering of the party faithful, dominated by Andy Burnham's antics and the looming spectre of Nigel Farage's Reform UK.
​As Keir Starmer makes his big conference speech, Liam has an instant verdict on whether it will be enough to turn round Labour's dismal poll ratings.
Plus, Rob picks up a freebie that makes him look like a dad on holiday...and why are two new towns destined for the North of England neither towns nor very new?

The Northern Agenda is a Reach production, presented by Rob Parsons and Liam Thorp. The podcast is produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin.

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The Westminster circus is preparing to descend once again on the Liverpool docks as Labour holds its annual party conference at the city's big convention centre.
It'll be five days of political debate, speeches and drinks events for the Labour faithful. But as Keir Starmer tries to rouse his troops and get his stuttering premiership back on track, there's a shadow being cast by a certain Scouse-accented metro mayor and King of the North who may well just steal the limelight.
Will this year's Labour conference turn out to be the Andy Burnham show? Rob Parsons and Liam Thorp discuss it with one of the country's most successful and best-connected political journalists, Patrick Maguire, who as well as being chief political commentator at The Times is a native of nearby Southport.
Patrick will be appearing at the Ilkley Literature Festival on Sunday 19th Oct at 1:15 pm to talk about his book 'Get In: The Inside Story of Labour Under Starmer', described as a blistering exposé of the most significant and ruthless political transformation in a generation.​ More details here.

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​Rob Parsons and Liam Thorp are back discussing the week's political news from a Northern perspective and there are some big questions to answer.
​As Bridget Phillipson and Lucy Powell compete to succeed Angela Rayner, does the next deputy leader of the Labour party really need to be a woman from the North? Why is Reform UK planning to axe Northern Powerhouse Rail? And what on earth is the matter with the boxer Tommy Fury?

Plus: as the national debate on immigration becomes ever more toxic, Liam tells us about his conversations with asylum seekers in Liverpool who've risk their lives to come to this country.

The Northern Agenda is presented by Rob Parsons and Liam Thorp. The podcast is produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin, and the episode artwork is by Graeme Bandeira.

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​This week, Rob Parsons speaks to Jim McMahon, a Northern politician at the heart of Government.
In the Commons this week - before her tax affairs become engulfed in controversy - Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner made the case to MPs about what she described as "the biggest transfer of power in a generation out of Whitehall to our regions and communities" and an end to "the begging bowl, micro-managing culture".
She's talking about Labour’s English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, which will give more powers to existing mayors and see two-tier district and county councils replaced with one body.
Why should we care about this legislation tinkering under the bonnet of our democratic system?

This week on the podcast ​R​ob asked ​M​r McMahon, one of Angela Rayner's team of Ministers in charge of Local Government and Devolution, as well as being an MP in Oldham. He's a former leader of Oldham council too so knows all too well the challenges local politicians face.
​Mr McMahon talks about how these changes are fundamental to Labour's mission in government, what he says about worries they will allow power to be hoarded away from communities, and whether he'd force areas like Lancashire to have a metro mayor.

PLUS: Why he's forcing councils like Sheffield to abandon their committee system of government and what he thinks of Reform UK's decision in Nottinghamshire to ban any communications with their local paper.

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Dr Rebecca Whittington is the online safety editor for Reach, the UK and Ireland's biggest commercial publisher.

Since 2021, she has helped journalists across the country who are receiving online abuse, helping them to develop measures for social media to try and prevent further harassment.

The Yorkshire-based journalist launched a new podcast 'Go Doxx Yourself' in July, which unpicks the human stories behind cyber nightmares.

Rebecca tells Northern Agenda editor Rob Parsons the stories she has heard so far on the podcast, and tips on how to improve your online safety.

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​A few weeks ago on a visit to Leeds, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said there was "something really special" about the health ecosystem in the city - which boasts more NHS England and Department for Health staff than anywhere outside London.

But the ambitions of health bosses in Yorkshire's biggest city go ​f​urther still. A few days ago its hospital trust set out a new strategy to cement its position as the UK's largest research powerhouse outside the traditional so-called Golden Triangle of life sciences in London, Oxford and Cambridge.

Targeting a 40% increase in research activity by 2030, it's hoped the five-year research and innovation strategy will achieve a host of other goals, namely improving health outcomes, tackling health inequalities and driving economic growth.

On the Northern Agenda podcast this week, Dr Chris Herbert, Director of Operations for Research and Innovation at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, tells Rob Parsons​ about the pioneering work its researchers are already doing, the North-South divide on research funding and how he wants underserved communities in Yorkshire to feel the benefit from the new strategy.

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Rob Parsons looks at a story playing out in the North that sits squarely in the middle of two huge issues Keir Starmer and the Labour government want to be judged on at the next election: economic growth and the net zero agenda.

In the coming days the Hull-based firm Vivergo Fuels will find out whether it has a viable future, or whether it will have to start the process of laying off its 160 employees because of the impact of this year's trade deal signed between the UK and Donald Trump's USA.

But there's a huge amount at stake not just for the company and its staff, but thousands more workers in the supply chain, and also the future of the growing biofuels industry - essentially turning living matter into fuel - which has the potential to bring lots of jobs and investment into many areas of the North.

Rob speaks to Vivergo's managing director Ben Hackett, who says the decision made by the Government over whether to support his company will have huge implications for our farmers and even our ability to fill up our cars at petrol stations.

The Northern Agenda is a Reach production, presented by Rob Parsons and Liam Thorp, and produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin.

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For a lot of football fans around the country, the season is getting under way this weekend. But in South Yorkshire and on the Lancashire coast, two sets of fans will have a very real sense of trepidation that their clubs are about to disappear.

Sheffield Wednesday and Morecambe don't have much in common in terms of their football histories, but are both in dire financial trouble and face sanctions from football authorities. 

Rob and Liam talk to Liverpool academic and football accounting expert Kieran Maguire about how two Northern clubs were left teetering on the brink and what it tells us about modern football.

Plus Rob has an awkward encounter with an AI version of a Northern MP. And Liam tells us about the rather rude email he had from a BBC Newsnight viewer after he appeared on the show this week to talk immigration.

The Northern Agenda is a Reach production, presented by Rob Parsons and Liam Thorp, and produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin. The image is by Northern Agenda resident cartoonist Graeme Bandeira.

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There's still several years until we're likely to get another General Election, but it's no longer a stretch to consider the possibility of Nigel Farage as Prime Minister and Reform UK as the ruling party.

Until very recently however, we had precious little evidence of how and what Reform would actually do in power, since they had very little experience of actually running anything.

All that changed in May though, as the party swept to victory in a host of local and mayoral elections across the North and nationwide, putting them in charge of local councils and metro mayoral authorities.

How have they been doing since - and what lessons can we draw from Reform UK locally about what they would do if put in charge of the country?

To find, Rob Parsons speaks to journalists from the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme:

The Northern Agenda is a Reach production, presented by Rob Parsons and produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin.

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