They call him the “King of the North” – and why not? Andy Burnham is the UK’s first northern Prime Minister in decades.
He was born in Aintree, Merseyside, an area most Brits agree sits comfortably in the north of England. But he’s not the first northerner to find themselves running No. 10. Depending on what you consider north, Margaret Thatcher – who left power in 1990 – could be called the most recent, having been born in Grantham, Lincolnshire.
However, it’s a claim that could easily cause some controversy. We’re on firmer ground with Harold Wilson, the Labour Prime Minister who served twice from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976.
He was born in Huddersfield – which is almost definitely northern. But that still doesn’t answer one burning question. Where exactly does the north of England start?
Here Daily Star geography correspondent Joshua Whorms hits the road to quiz the great British public. It’s all change in Westminster this week, after PM Andy Burnham assembled the most northern Cabinet in British history.
Miatta Fahnbulleh, the newly-appointed minister for Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, is the sole exception. As MP for Peckham, London, she’s the only member representing a seat south of Birmingham. But is Birmingham the north?
Where exactly does the north start and the Midlands end? Taking to the streets of London, the Daily Star found it was almost impossible to keep everyone happy. When asked to draw a line on a map showing the north-south divide, no two members of the public gave exactly the same answer.
Some of their borders were straight, others danced around counties and smaller cities. And one controversially started at Birmingham – completely wiping the Midlands off the map.
Peter Began, 72, was part of a crowd outside the gates of Downing Street, armed with a “Vote for Binface” placard. He said the north included “anywhere Hull and upwards.”
But after some thought, he added: “I’d say north of Cheshire, Derby, South Yorkshire. Sheffield I think is north, and Manchester, Bradford, Leeds – and they’re a bit south of Hull.”
Robin Wells, 33, was also outside the Prime Minister’s London residence, calling for him to take a firmer stance on climate change. When handed a map, she confidently drew her border around Middlesbrough – placing everything below the town in the Midlands.
But on seeing her attempt put major cities like Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool outside of the north, she was forced to double back. Robin admitted: “Thought I’d go too low. I was so worried I’d go too low. I grew up here [in London]. I have no idea.”
Meanwhile Ranjan Kumaran, 48, placed Manchester, Cheshire and Sheffield in the north, adding that Grimsby should be part of the Midlands. He said: “Lincoln’s a weird one. They sound northern to me so that’s the north for me. Like Norfolk is south and Lincoln is north to me. It’s just the way they sound – I quite like the northern twang!”
Ask the experts
DJ and presenter Stuart Maconie has written a whole book on the subject of the north-south divide. In Pies & Prejudice (2007), he says: “According to legend, the north begins at the RAC Traffic Centre on the M6 just at the point where the road surface changes from tarmac to cobbles.”
That would put it in Walsall, West Midlands – but he later concludes the north actually starts in Crewe. “It’s from here that you head on to Manchester and Liverpool, the Lake District, Lancashire, the Pennines, Yorkshire and the bracing coast,” he adds.
Meanwhile Dr Sneha Krishnan, Associate Professor of Human Geography at Oxford University, can tell us why it’s such a tricky question. The problem is there’s no official split between the north and south of England.
In fact, she explains, it’s more about “where power is centred and where regional deprivation has been concentrated, particularly in the years after deindustrialisation.
“There aren’t widely agreed upon answers for where the North of the UK begins, and indeed where the divide is north-south or south east and the rest. Because it’s less a matter of objective physical location, as a relationship to the centre of power in the south and southeast.”
She adds that when people refer to the north, they are usually thinking of a specific set of social and political problems. Things like unemployment, deindustrialisation, housing shortages and struggling high streets.
“And the sense of potential wasted as wealth and power continue to be concentrated in London and the South East.”
Andy Burnham’s office did not respond to a request for comment