THE Tory leadership contest shows the Tory commitment to “levelling up” is dead, Labour said today as the party accused candidates of “vying for Margaret Thatcher’s mantle.” 

The leadership race, which has seen hopefuls engage in an arms race over tax cuts and deregulation, is the “final nail in the coffin” for Tory plans to close the gap between the rich and the poor in some parts of the country, shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy said. 

Britain is one of the most geographically unequal countries among the world’s wealthiest nations, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. 

But despite promising to make “levelling up” the “defining mission” of his government, outgoing PM Boris Johnson’s plans to close the gaping regional divide were only laid out in Parliament in February 2022. 

Now Labour has accused the Tories of abandoning those plans altogether, with candidates promising a return to Thatcherite policies. 

“Those voices in the Tory Party who tried to advance this agenda have been roundly defeated and now the ugly truth of this is on full display as leadership contenders vie for the mantle of Margaret Thatcher — promising tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation and more managed decline across Britain,” Ms Nandy said in a speech in Darlington.

“In short, the Tories’ commitment to levelling up is dead. But levelling up is not dead. Not for the millions who voted for change — and who need and deserve to see it delivered.”

Labour MP Richard Burgon said Tory promises to level up were “always a lie to con people into voting for them.

“Real levelling up would require hundreds of billions of public investment to repair the damage done by Thatcher and then by austerity,” he told the Morning Star.

“No Tory government, led by Boris Johnson or or anyone else, will ever deliver that.

“In the last two years, the wealth of billionaires has risen like never before — soaring by £220m a day — while we have record foodbank use. 

“The Tories don't level up, they just punch down, as they try to grab a greater and greater share for the top 1 per cent.”

Ms Nandy added that it now “falls to Labour” to deliver as she announced that a Labour government would establish a licensing system to tackle the issue of second homes in rural areas and give communities the right to buy up assets such as empty shops. 

The Equality Trust also hit out at the government’s lack of commitment to addressing widening regional inequality in the UK, shown by delays to deliver its levelling up promises. 

“This focus on income and corporation tax cuts will do nothing to support low-income households and the cost of living crisis they currently face,” the group’s interim executive director Jo Wittams said. 

She said the government should instead introduce a wealth tax and raise the minimum wage to real living wage rates.

Tory candidates’ tax-cutting agenda has not only been criticised by the opposition but also big business and even the International Monetary Fund, which warned this week that tax cuts at the current time “would be a mistake” and boost inflation. 

It comes as the latest TV leadership debate was cancelled yesterday after Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss said they would not attend over “concerns” about the damage the debates were doing to the image of the Tory Party, according to Sky. 

The broadcaster added that the debates, which have seen candidates exchange personal attacks, were “exposing disagreements and splits within the party.” 

In another sign of the increasingly bitter race to replace Mr Johnson, Penny Mordaunt faced a personal attack from her own boss on Monday, who accused her of missing ministerial meetings in order to plot her Tory leadership bid. 

International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said the minister’s absence meant colleagues were forced to “pick up the pieces.”