‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’: Gove Defends UK Levelling Up Record

Minister voices concern over Britain’s growing wealth gap
Gove says upheaval in Westminster in 2022 was ‘not ideal’

The divide between the UK’s poorer regions and its capital is widening relentlessly despite the Conservative Party’s flagship promise to “level up” Britain 3 years ago. Joe Mayes reports.Source: Bloomberg

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By Joe Mayes

January 25, 2023 at 3:46 PM UTC

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Michael Gove, the UK cabinet minister in charge of the government’s flagship “levelling up” policy, called Britain’s widening wealth gap “concerning” and conceded that Westminster upheaval has damaged efforts to spread wealth and opportunity around the country.

“It’s not ideal to have had some of the political turbulence we had last year,” Gove said in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg News on Wednesday. “The important thing is, paraphrasing Oasis, not to look back in anger, but to instead invoke Fleetwood Mac, and don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.”