Sorry Andy – Manchester and ‘the north’ aren’t the same thing

County Durham should be Andy Burnham country. It has been at the heart of the labour movement, and the Labour Party, since its very birth. It was the home of the largest and most powerful miners’ trade union in England, and Durham hosts the Miners’ Gala – a festival of the working class and of unionism – to this day.

Three Labour leaders had their seats in the county, including the party’s first prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald, and its most successful PM electorally, Tony Blair. Before that, Durham was the first-ever county council to be run by Labour, in 1919.

Beyond that history, the new PM seems to have a genuine belief in devolution, and seems to understand that Labour’s political fortunes – and the country’s economic fate – rely upon regenerating areas like County Durham.