A cursory flick through Hansard, Parliament's official transcript, quickly provides proof that pinning a firm definition on to that most allusive phrase – ‘levelling up' – isn't by any means a new challenge.

Just look at the heated exchanges that took place between 1868 and 1869, Hansard's earliest recordings of ‘levelling up', when the slogan was used to describe efforts to ensure religious equality between the Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches. Involved in the debates, among others, were William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli, the latter lamenting that he would ‘very much like to have [the Opposition's] views as to the distinct meaning they attribute to the phrase'.