‘We’re like Wales – forgotten about’ says Northern Independence Party

What is now the north of England has been “forgotten about” by Westminster and needs to prepare for Wales and Scotland leaving the UK, the Northern Independence Party have said.

They said that a recent poll showing support for Welsh independence at 39% suggested that Wales would soon be following Scotland out the exit door – and Northumbria, as they want to call their new country, needed to stand alone too.

“Scotland will break away from the Union and Wales is the next step,” the party’s media chief Luke Blaylock said. “We’re like Wales – we get forgotten about.

“It is very much based on regionalism and localism. We’re not creating our own version of nationalism – it’s a counter to English nationalism.”

He told the Scottish National that his party had been set up last year to “have a voice like the SNP in Scotland” and that if Northumbria had been financed like London it would have received an additional £66bn over the last decade.

“Britain is the most centralised country in the developed world. If you look at history and how power works, it is so centralised there is no way to get radical reforms within it,” he said.

“People have been calling for some form of federalism for hundreds of years.

“People in the north won’t go out to vote because there is no alternative to Labour,” he added. “The right is the only alternative for the north if we hadn’t set up an anti-establishment party.

“It’s a natural progression as nationalism in England is right-wing and has manifested itself in Brexit.”

The party is standing in the Hartlepool by-election on May 6 and hopes their candidate, former Labour MP Thelma Walker, wins the seat.

Thelma Walker was formerly a member of Westminster’s Welsh Affairs Committee, having stood in when there was a shortage of Welsh Labour MPs willing to take the role.