You only need to take a short walk from the Houses of Parliament to see the UK’s imbalance in a nutshell.

It’s not the stunning architecture, vibrant bars and restaurants, or world-leading universities. Across the North, we have all of that in plentiful supply—though I’m sure certain members of the cabinet might believe that everyone north of Birmingham lives in some kind of Hovis advert.

No, I am talking about something as ordinary as one of the bus stops dotted along Parliament Square.

During rush hour on an ordinary working day, you are just as likely to find yourself standing next to a member of the Lords or Commons as the staff that service their offices and serve their food.

While a hierarchy might exist within the walls of the Palace of Westminster, on the street, people all stand in the same line as equals waiting for a bus. It was a spectacle I witnessed almost daily during my time as an MP.

Done properly, public transport is a great leveller—and in London, it proves the case, with people from all walks of life stood waiting patiently in line, many not even bothering to check the timetable, such is the reliability and frequency of our capital’s bus system.

During my time in the Commons, it made me question why things didn’t work like this at home.

Back then, I would sometimes drive into Liverpool city centre. Fast forward a couple of years, and in the name of doing my bit for climate change, I no longer own a car.

I use public transport to get about, and like the thousands of other residents that rely on it every day, experience a disjointed system that simply doesn’t work for those who need it.

When I ran to be the first Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, fundamental reform of our broken, fragmented transport system was one of the key drivers. For too many people in our region, public transport does not provide the quality alternative to the car that we deserve.

In only a few years, we’ve already taken firm steps to help put that right. Taking inspiration from my time in the capital, I want to build a London-style transport system for our region that will make getting about quicker, cheaper, greener, and more reliable.

Earlier this month, those plans took a massive leap forward.

Margaret Thatcher’s decision in 1985 to deregulate bus services outside of London has to go down as one of the single most destructive pieces of ideological vandalism in our country’s recent history.

It set London and the rest of the country on two wildly divergent paths, with many working-class communities quite literally cut off from each other, and from opportunities to get on, as a result.

Let me be clear, though: I’m not knocking London. This isn’t and shouldn’t be a race to the bottom.

As my friend Sadiq Khan is right to say, a strong London is good for our regions and for the UK. But I’m sure we all agree that a strong North is good for London and the rest of the country, too.

And let’s face it: even London would struggle to have London-style amenities if the government decided to give them Northern-style funding settlements.

For more than thirty years, we have been forced to contend with fragmentation, deregulation, and underfunding; the backbone of our public transport networks designed around the whims of private shareholders rather than the people relying on the service every single day.

Eighty-two percent of all public transport journeys in my region are taken by bus—that’s nearly 400,000 journeys every day. But it would be a mistake to assume that this is a statistic borne solely out of personal preference.

Low levels of car ownership—coupled with a historic lack of joined-up thinking that has left many communities cut off from train networks—means that our buses are a lifeline for some of the most vulnerable in our society.

Buses are not only a vehicle to help people get from A to B, they are also a driver for social mobility, connecting people to family, work, education, and training, and other vital public services.

Yet local people tell me that our buses are too unreliable, often unaffordable and inconvenient. It is little wonder when some journeys can cost twice as much as similar ones in London. It is a familiar story across much of the North.

How can that be fair?

Our people deserve better—and that’s why I’m not prepared to accept a second-class service for the people of the Liverpool City Region anymore.

Using the powers devolution has given us, we are working to roll back the 1980s and put local transport back where it belongs—under public control. Local leaders recently chose franchising as our preferred model for running the region’s buses.

Where successive Tory governments have failed to deliver on ‘levelling up’ (or the Big Society, or the Long-Term Economic Plan, or the Burning Injustices or, come to think of it, any of the empty slogans they have offered us over the years), we’re showing what real, radical change looks like.

The Labour Party has been doing real ‘levelling up’ for more than a hundred years. It’s called socialism. And there is no better manifestation of that than repairing the damage that reckless market experimentation has done to local transport.

It is not a journey I am taking alone. Across the North, Labour leaders are showing the difference our party makes in power.

As is often the case with deregulated buses, you wait years for one and then suddenly three Labour mayors turn up and start reregulating our networks at the same time.

This is why we get into politics; why we choose the Labour Party. Not to tinker round the edges but to deliver radical transformations that improve the lives of ordinary people.

I’m proud to be building the fairer, greener more inclusive place that the 1.6 million people who call my region home deserve. It’s all aboard the bus to get us there.