Former Conservative deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine has added his voice to criticism of Boris Johnson’s covid recovery speech on Tuesday, in which he pledged a Roosevelt-style ‘New Deal’ for the economy but found only £5bn of new money for construction projects.

Speaking on the Today programme, Heseltine said he was “deeply disappointed” by the strategy in Johnson’s speech, which he branded “naive”, saying it would not succeed because of the failure to engage local communities – particularly elected city mayors – in turning around local economies.

Heseltine said only local leaders had the knowledge to identify the specific projects best placed to bring about local regeneration. His criticism matched similar comments made by Labour leader Keir Starmer yesterday, who said that local decision-makers meeded to be engaged.

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