THERESA May’s cabinet reshuffle introduced lots of new faces but prompted an old question– where is the minister for the Northern Powerhouse?

The new PM earlier this week promised she would help create “a country which works for all” but the truth is that her government will be run by people who live in and answer to the voters of southern England.

Mrs May promoted Teessider Greg Clark but the new business secretary spends most of his time these days in either Westminster or his constituency Royal Tunbridge Wells - two of the wealthiest places in Britain and a world away from the challenges faced by many people living in his native South Bank, Middlesbrough.

Humberside's David Davis is the most northerly based MP of all Mrs May’s cabinet but as Brexit minister he can expect to spend most of his time in the coming months flitting between London and Brussels.  

Who then will speak up for the north in this supposed ‘One Nation’ regime?

Which of Mrs May’s team has a vested interest in jobs and investment being steered towards County Durham, North Yorkshire or former steelmaking town Redcar? The latter was so badly served by Sajid Javid, who proved to be a complete dead loss during the steel crisis, that he has been demoted by his new boss.    

The newly appointed Chancellor, Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary, indeed all of the most influential cabinet posts have been handed to people who spend their working week in London and will hang onto their seats by appeasing voters in the capital or the affluent southern shires.

So can Stockton South MP James Wharton ensure the voice of our region is heard?  

More than 30 Tory MPs have been part of this reshuffle but the fate of Mr Wharton, who led George Osborne’s pet Northern Powerhouse project, remains a mystery.

If he is overlooked and the regeneration of the north is put on the backburner then Mrs May’s claim to care about the whole country will ring very hollow indeed.