The result of the European Union referendum was an instruction to ‘deliver the Northern Powerhouse and make it a reality,' chancellor George Osborne has said.

Mr Osborne said: ‘One clear message from the referendum was that there were parts of our country which felt left behind and one of the reasons that I said two years ago that we needed to build a Northern Powerhouse was to make sure the whole country shares in our economic prosperity.'

His verdict comes as think-tank ResPublica published a new manifesto which proposed the creation of a Council of the North to counter ‘London-centric policy making' and to address north-south inequalities.

The council would bring together leaders from the cities and regions to balance the power of Westminster. 

Director of ResPublica, Phillip Blond, said: ‘Post-Brexit it is vital we don't lose the north once more.

‘We must maintain the urgent reinvention of our country and we must demand from those who would be our leaders that they mirror their paeans to social justice with a new deal for the North equal in scale and ambition to what Roosevelt offered America in the 1930s.'