EXCLUSIVE 🚨 Greater Manchester's NHS plunging into 'special measures' over £180m debt. Staff briefing from NHS GM says it has ‘not been able to demonstrate to NHS England progress required against our well-publicised performance, finance & quality issues’
manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/health/gr…

Today's Northern Agenda newsletter leads on Middlesbrough FC owner Steve Gibson's attack on Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen

PLUS: Why is Blackpool rock under threat
AND: The first ever Northern Music Awards

Sign up at thenorthernagenda.co.uk

The BBC Tees Valley mayoral hustings has been going for a few minutes and it's already kicking off

Ben Houchen, Chris McEwan and Simon Thorley 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 all clashing and talking over each other over the future of Teesside Airport

bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-e…

LIVE this morning! 11.00am - watch bbc.co.uk/tees listen BBC Tees take part #BBCTeesmayor with all 3 candidates for Mayor Simon Thorley 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ben Houchen Chris McEwan

Crikey

Extraordinary development in the Tees Valley mayoral election race tonight

Boro chairman Steve Gibson has come out and endorsed Labour's Chris McEwan and launched a scathing attack on Ben Houchen and Teesworks

✍️ Exclusive Chris Lloyd

thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/24274083.…

In the Northern Agenda today, David Dubas-Fisher looks at the areas of England and Wales with most deaths caused by alcohol

Eight of the top 10 are in the North of England...

More at: thenorthernagenda.co.uk

Graphic by Marianna Longo

Cat Smith MP

Just catching up on yesterday's Levelling Up questions in the Commons - where there was a LOT of electioneering going on (from both sides) ahead of May 2

Here's a particularly brazen example from Darlington's Conservative MP Peter Gibson...

thenorthernagenda.co.uk

Getting ready for our Tees Valley Mayor debate with candidates Ben Houchen Chris McEwan Simon Thorley live on Wednesday morning 11.00am BBC Tees and bbc.co.uk/tees or later on BBC1 10.40pm #bbcTeesmayor

2/ Did some rough-and-ready crunching of numbers to get the following tallies. Let me know if you think these are unfair/wrong. It feels (and reads like) one was written in close cooperation with LOTO (in anticipation of a hoped-for Labour Government) and the other, less so....

Angela Rayner asked Michael Gove in the Commons this afternoon why he won't send the National Audit Office in to investigate Teesworks.

'I’m sure the honourable lady is very keen that all sorts of matters are investigated properly by independent figures who can be trusted.'

The furious row over Gateshead FC being denied in a place in the National League play-offs is about more than just football - it's shone a spotlight on the decisions facing austerity-hit local councils...

Read today's newsletter at: …letters.e.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/YUg5epuysoGoD4…

Bishop of Newcastle Bishop of Newcastle calls for improvements to care system after figures show huge numbers of children in care in the North East chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-eas…

WARNING!

Anti-smoking Sunak left coughing and spluttering as the lettuce returns! Here's today's The Northern Agenda cartoon...

shareyourstories.live/northern-agend…

Academic co-director of Health Equity North
Prof David Taylor-Robinson speaks to Rob Parsons about Child of the North Children in Care report. From 32mins David discusses north-south divide regarding number of children in care - almost one in a hundred children in the North are in care

Our academic co-director Prof David Taylor-Robinson of University of Liverpool has spoken to the Rob Parsons podcast about our 'Children in Care in the North of England' report and the inequalities children in the North entering care experience.

Listen to the interview from 32 minutes

This week on the Northern Agenda podcast, Liam Thorp and I talk:

- Mark Menzies and Angela Rayner, which story matters more?
- Why should we name the politicians who didn't pay council tax?
- 'XL Gullies' taking our lunch

Listen: podfollow.com/the-northern-a…

🧵This afternoon, Manchester News MEN is hosting a GM mayoral hustings where five of the candidates will be making their pitch to voters.

I'll have updates from the hustings below, but before we get going, here's what each candidate has pledged to do if elected
manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-m…

'Child poverty rates are going in the wrong direction' 📈

Rob Parsons discusses the key issues the Northeast is facing and whether or not these are the issues the public will be voting on in the upcoming #MetroMayor election.

Listen now 👇🎧
loom.ly/INR-BDI

An 11am start today House of Lords and there are two debates I’m speaking in: on the long-term sustainability of the NHS to deliver timely health and social care; and on the number of children in care Child of the North Newcastle Diocese (CofE) Rob Parsons Helen Dalby Church of England in Parliament