BORIS Johnson will today confront those Tory critics who believe he is too focused on the North.
The Prime Minister will try to cool tempers within his party amid claims he cares only about the Red Wall seats he won in 2019.
In the wake of last month’s by-election defeat in a southern Tory stronghold, Mr Johnson will launch a passionate defence of his “levelling up” agenda.
It comes as there are calls from his own MPs not to forget more traditional Conservative areas down South.
And there was new pressure on the PM last night after polling showed his government was hit by its worst ratings since last October.
But today he will vow to plough on pumping cash into “left behind” areas, adding: “It is vital to understand the difference between this project and levelling down.
“We don’t want to decapitate the tall poppies. You can’t make the poor parts of the country richer by making the rich parts poorer.
“Levelling up is not a jam-spreading operation.”
Mr Johnson insisted that plans to spend more in the North were “not robbing Peter to pay Paul — it’s not zero sum, it’s win win”.
Last month, the Lib Dems seized Chesham and Amersham in Bucks — a Tory seat since 1974 — amid rows over planning rules and the HS2 rail route that carves through the constituency.
But Mr Johnson will insist that big building plans and travel projects to tilt the economic growth away from the “overheating” South will help all parts of the country.
He will point to “areas where house prices are sky high and where transport is already congested”.
And he will blame his predecessors for putting too much focus there.
On a visit to the West Midlands, he will say: “By turbo-charging those areas — especially in London and the South East — you drive prices even higher and you force more people to move to the same expensive areas.
“The result is their commutes are longer, their trains are crowded, they have less time with their kids.”
But a blow to him came with a survey by Ipsos MORI for the Evening Standard that showed 55 per cent of adults are dissatisfied with the Government — up seven percentage points from last month. Just 35 per cent are satisfied, down nine points.
It gave ministers a net satisfaction rating of minus-20, compared to minus-four in June — with a strong collapse in support from female voters in the wake of the Matt Hancock affair scandal.
