Angela Rayner praised for correcting Sky News presenter who said the Midlands was in the North

Labour's Angela Rayner has confirmed that she will be running to become deputy leader of the party in the forthcoming elections and she will already be winning support in the Midlands and the north of England.

The MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, who is from Stockport, Greater Manchester confirmed her intentions to stand on Monday and did the routine set of television interviews to promote the announcement.

During an interview with Sky News' Jayne Secker, she was asked if she would work under Jess Phillips, who Secker labelled as another "fantastic northern woman."

Rayner gave a diplomatic response and also quite rightly pointed out the geographical differences between the two women.

I'd work for Jess Phillips as well too. Absolutely. She's another fantastic Midlands [woman].

Birmingham is slightly different to Manchester, I don't think they would class themselves as the same. 

You might not consider this to be a problem but if you happen to be from the Midlands (as this writer is) you will have more than likely seen your home town, be it Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Leicester, Nottingham etc as being in the North of England.

This couldn't be more incorrect as it is called the Midlands for a reason and the north basically begins when you hit south Yorkshire. It's really not that hard but this small interaction would appear to fit into the old cliche from Southerners that "anything above Watford is the North."

Needless to say, those that have had their homes wrongly classified as being from up North was very happy to hear Rayner make such a timely intervention.

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