Senior Conservatives have backed Gordon Brown’s plan to reform devolution in an effort to strengthen the Union.

Andy Street, mayor for the West Midlands, said that more respect should be given to the English regions as part of a sharing of power and ideas to benefit the entire UK.

The idea proposed by Brown, the former Labour prime minister, would involve establishing a forum to bring together the first ministers of the UK, the regional English mayors, and the prime minister to collaborate on key priorities such as climate change, economic recovery and poverty.

“He’s right. If you look at the West Midlands economy it’s far bigger than Wales, substantially bigger than Northern Ireland, almost as big as Scotland,” Street told Times Radio.