Politics always has its main characters. One year it’s Brexit, the next it’s COVID, today it’s missions and growth. Each takes the spotlight in turn, dominating the script and drowning out everything else.
But what about the supporting cast – the towns, cities and regions that only appear in Westminster’s story when a crisis drags them on stage?
I wanted to know where actually gets talked about in Parliament, and whether “place” truly has the prominence in our political discourse that the rhetoric suggests. So I spent ten hours trawling Hansard to find out which places are household names in Westminster, which ones fade into the background, and how much space they really get compared with the big national themes.
What I found surprised me. In 2025 so far, MPs have mentioned devolution just 861 times, fewer than COVID (923), four years after the pandemic’s peak. For a government that says it wants to put place at the heart of politics, that should make us stop and think.
London Rules, But There’s More to the Story
London is in a league of its own. In 2022, MPs name-checked the capital 3,700 times in Hansard, more than Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, and Sheffield combined. It’s no surprise: it’s the seat of government, the major economic engine, and a national symbol – a definite and long-serving main character, the Ken Barlow of Westminster.
Beyond London, Manchester consistently gets the most mentions, cementing its “second city” status (sorry, Birmingham). But here’s the twist: when MPs talk about Manchester, they rarely say “Greater Manchester”. Birmingham gets far more mentions than “West Midlands”. Liverpool leaves “Liverpool City Region” trailing. Even in a supposedly devolved age, Westminster reaches instinctively for city names, not the official regional terms.Words are power. If MPs won’t even say “Liverpool City Region,” how real is that identity in Westminster’s mind? Liverpool on its own racked up 1,421 mentions. Its combined authority? Just 101. That’s not a main character, that’s a background extra waiting around at the end of the day for a line of dialogue.
Winners and Losers in the Attention Stakes
Parliamentary airtime isn’t fixed, and some of the supporting cast have been on the rise. Bournemouth has tripled its mentions since 2022. Carlisle, once a quiet extra on the Parliamentary stage, has grown from 41 mentions in 2019 to 112 in 2025. Norwich has doubled over the same period.
Others have slipped. Leeds has dropped from over 600 mentions in 2021 to just 228 so far in 2025, with “West Yorkshire” also in decline. Plymouth’s numbers have similarly fallen sharply since 2019.
These surges and slumps are often driven by short-term events: a local crisis, a big infrastructure row, or a vocal MP. But without their own political platforms, places can’t hold Westminster’s gaze once the national agenda moves on.
Every Year Has a few “Main Characters”
The issue data makes this even clearer. Each year, one or two topics dominate everything else:
- 2019: EU (2,238 mentions) and Brexit (1,564) as negotiations reached fever pitch.
- 2020 & 2021: COVID, peaking at over 10,000 mentions.
- 2022: Cost of living (3,223), Russia (2,846), and Levelling up (3,325) at its high point.
- 2023: A transition year, with attention split between old and emerging issues.
- 2024: Growth (4,943) and Gaza (2,194) dominate, while Brexit, COVID, and levelling up fade into the background
This is how Westminster works. The “main characters” of the year take up the oxygen. Place-based debates, unless tied directly to that theme, become background noise.
Why It Matters
Westminster will always be dominated by the big national storylines – the NHS, welfare, foreign policy. That’s its job, and it’s why only a handful of issues and places ever get cast as the main characters.
But politics isn’t just about the leads. Towns, cities and regions can’t remain extras in someone else’s script, waiting for a rare walk-on part when Westminster has the bandwidth. They need their own stage, their own debates, and the autonomy to act on them.
That’s what genuine devolution offers: a way to make sure every place has more than a speaking role, it has the power to shape the story.Find out more about our devolution work
