A move north would give extra support to new Tory MPs like Dehenna Davison

Boris Johnson’s allies have downplayed suggestions that he was preparing to move the Tory party HQ to the north of England, insisting that he wanted only to create a second administrative centre outside London.

The Conservative Home website reported that a senior source in Downing Street had asked it to canvass the views of activists on a new location for the Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ).

The new venue should be “somewhere reasonably close to a university with good maths/physics departments (we should get a data team up there) good train links, well placed in political terms”, the source told the site.

Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s chief adviser, is a strong advocate for the greater use of data in political campaigning and government.

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