From Wath to Westminster: John Healey prepares his first Budget

"Honestly, you've got to try these pork pies."

One of the benefits of being MP for the same place for 30 years is that you're going to know where the best meat-filled pastries are.

I'd been walking down Wath upon Dearne's high street with John Healey - and as well as imploring me to try baked goods, he is campaigning to end VAT on defibrillators.

In his previous government posts, he was putting pressure on the then Chancellor to help charities with the cost of the life-saving devices.

Now he's the one in the Treasury and since July has been making the big decisions that fit into that small red briefcase.

Healey is a Yorkshireman through and through. Born in Wakefield, then educated in York, he is now MP for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough in South Yorkshire.

Now 66, we first met him during the 1992 general election when he was standing as the Labour candidate in Ryedale.

"This time it'll be closer than it's ever been before," he told us back then.

He did raise Labour's share of the vote from 8.1% in 1987 to 13.7% - but he was still soundly beaten by the Conservatives in one of the bluest parts of Yorkshire.

When he did get himself a seat in Parliament five years later, it was in one of the reddest. Wentworth in Rotherham overwhemingley elected him as part of the Labour landslide.

Supporting local businesses and their pies aside, Healey has also done the Westminster legwork to get to the position of Chancellor. He's already done five Budgets in his time as a minister, under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Now in the world of Andy Burnham and Number 10 North, it feels fitting that the Chancellor is from one of the constituencies that the Prime Minister is referring to when he talks about regional inequality.

Rawmarsh and Conisbrough might boast a Norman castle that inspired the novel Ivanhoe and a Georgian house, Wentworth Woodhouse, that has a facade that's considered the longest in the country.

But it is also made up of former coalfield communities that have struggled since that industry disappeared.

Bob Bradshaw meets me on a rainy morning in Wath. He wants future surpluses from miners' pensions to be shared out.

"As an ex-miner, let's have all that money back from government," he says.

He worked at Barnburgh pit, three miles down the road, and as someone who used to get coal out of the ground, thinks more should be done to help people with heating costs.

Bradshaw agrees with the opening of the new Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea.

He says: "I think personally they've done the right thing with the gas, but how much is going to filter down to us?"

He also thinks higher earners should pay more tax.

"I've heard people say that back in the war days the rich helped the country," he says. "Maybe it's time to step up again, instead of keep taking from people like me and those that work."

Wath upon Dearne sits right between Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley. The Dearne Valley used to be dominated by collieries, and towns like Wath were created because of that industry.

People in former coalfield areas on average live shorter, less healthy lives. They're often called "left behind" or "forgotten" places.

Healey referenced this in his first speech as Chancellor and thinks making decisions about South Yorkshire in South Yorkshire is the way to improve peoples' lives.

"A transport bottleneck in South Yorkshire is too often invisible from Whitehall, but it has a real impact on economic growth and on business investment decisions," he says.

"That is why at the Budget I will set out a road map to fiscal devolution - a permanent transfer of power and resources from Whitehall to our regions."

I catch Kim Kilner dashing between Wath town centre and Tesco. Food shopping is on her mind, as are energy prices.

She says: "Gas and electric need to go down, it's way too much. I'm in a three-bedroom house and I'm paying just short of £300 a month. Prices definitely need to change."

I ask whether she'll be watching the Budget on Wednesday.

"Probably not, I have a toddler so I don't have time to listen to it," she says.

"Food prices are definitely bad at the minute - they started going up after Covid and it's going to get worse.

"It'll probably cost me a fortune, maybe £50 for a bag of shopping."

Fiscal devolution will be a big part of the Budget, but people out shopping in Wath will want to hear about energy and food prices.

The balance of big economics and everyday wins is always the Budget tightrope.

We'll be going back to Wath plenty of times to see how they think their Chancellor is doing - and I will tell you, unconvincingly, that the visits are really, honestly, nothing to do with the pork pies.

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