Michael Gove tells councillor House of Lords will go to “Sunderland or Stoke”

Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Michael Gove, has told a Sunderland councillor that the House of Lords will be moving to "Sunderland or Stoke".

Cabinet Minister Michael Gove was delivering a keynote speech at the Local Government Association conference taking place in Harrogate today.

After finishing his speech and exiting the conference stage to leave the auditorium, the Levelling Up Secretary was quizzed by Lib Dem Sunderland city councillor Stephen O'Brien on whether he would bring the House of Lords to Sunderland.

Wearside Liberal Democrats are campaigning for the upper chamber of Parliament to be moved to Sunderland after the city was mentioned earlier in the year as a possible location by Michael Gove, alongside Plymouth, Burnley, Stoke on Trent and Edinburgh.

But after questioning at the LGA Conference about whether he would choose Sunderland to be the temporary home of the House of Lords during renovation work at the Palace of Westminster, he replied that it was between Sunderland and Stoke.

Commenting, Lib Dem councillor Stephen O'Brien said:

"This is promising news for the campaign to bring the House of Lords to Sunderland while the Houses of Parliament are being refurbished.

"As Michael Gove walked past me at the LGA conference this afternoon I didn't want to miss a chance to raise our campaign to move the House of Lords to Sunderland with him. It was really encouraging to hear him say that his choice is between Sunderland or Stoke.

"Faced with this choice between Stoke and Sunderland, I hope everyone in the city and the wider region will give their backing to relocating the House of Lords to Wearside so that we can get the economic benefits that would come with it - and help to put Sunderland on the map."