After her elevation to No 10 18 months ago, Theresa May promised to help the ‘left behind' in the English regions who had voted en masse to leave the EU and plunged the country into the chaos of Brexit. The trouble is governments – Labour, Conservative and Coalition – have been trying to help the left behind for decades with mixed results. It is not an issue to be solved in 18 months, especially after a decade of stagnant wages and welfare cuts and least of all by an enfeebled government, a weak prime minister and a legislative agenda dominated by Brexit.

Yet that is no reason not to try and, if the Government is about Brexit and Brexit is about the left behind, then one would assume the latter would run like Blackpool rock through Theresa May's entire agenda.