Boris Johnson has set ‘levelling up’ the UK as the mission for his government, but few in Whitehall or the country can explain exactly what it is, how it will be implemented and what success looks like.

Tackling regional inequalities lies at the heart of the Conservative Party’s re-election hopes, but relies on the implementation of a complex series of policies across national and local government – so does the UK have the will and the money to see it through?

With the imminent release of a white paper attempting to answer these questions, the Institute for Government welcomes Neil O’Brien, the minister for levelling up, to explore levelling up with Sebastian Payne, Whitehall Editor of the Financial Times and author of Broken Heartlands: A Journey Through Labour’s Lost England.

The pair will be in conversation with IfG director Bronwen Maddox, discussing Sebastian’s road trip through parts of England that voted Conservative for the first time in living memory and Neil’s work on producing the white paper and defining the policies that are the core mission of this government.