A FORTNIGHT ago, at Prime Minister's Questions, I again raised the issue of Lexit , which is the term for Leigh, Atherton, Tyldesley, Astley, Lowton and Golborne breaking away from Wigan Council to form our own Metropolitan Borough.

Leigh was forced into our current local government arrangements against our will in 1973. This year is the 50th anniversary of the campaign for Leigh to regain self-government.

PM Rishi Sunak wasn't present, as he, alongside the Leader of the Opposition, were rightly attending the funeral of the former Speaker of the House of Commons, Baroness Betty Boothroyd, so on this occasion, it fell to deputy PM Dominic Raab to answer PMQs. He promised me a meeting with the Local Government Minister and I have since had that meeting confirmed for April 19. I am of course greatly looking forward to being able to put my case directly to the Minister.

I recently carried out a sample survey as to the popularity of this issue, and the results that have come back so far showed over 90 per cent of Leigh residents in favour of Lexit. I noted with great interest a similar survey on local Facebook page Leigh Matters in which nearly 700 took part, with strikingly similar results.

Whilst neither poll represents an official referendum, I believe both are highly indicative of which way public support lies on this subject. The last successful local campaign for independence was Rutland in 1995 which broke away from Leicestershire. Rutland has less than half the population that would make up the new Leigh local authority, demonstrating smaller authorities can be viable.

The viability of the new Leigh authority would be established independently as part of the procedure for creating a new council, which happens more often than you may think. Even since 2019 more than a dozen local government re-organisations have either already taken place, or are in the process of taking place across England. The mechanisms are well established.

Once a new local authority was established, key decisions such as setting the council tax rate and where this tax is spent would be made locally by decision makers who have an interest in this being done efficiently, by virtue of having to live in the community which they govern. The new authority would remain part of Greater Manchester administratively, staying within shared bodies in terms of, for example, fire, police and transport.

It is my belief that Leigh and the surrounding communities will be happier and more successful if allowed to govern ourselves and to control our own finances. It is time for us to set up our own house rather than continue to live as an unhappy lodger in one controlled by Wigan Council.