Reeves' looming budget and Burnham rumblings raise stakes

A sense of perspective is vital to all things. And I have always been amused to recall, ever since I heard it mentioned as a throwaway remark in a stage comedy, that Lancashire is 140 miles further from London than it is from outer space.

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But for the next three days, our region, and much of its management, is at the epicentre of UK politics.

Not least because the Labour Party Conference is taking place in Liverpool, for much of my lifetime identified as the virtually separate People's Republic of Merseyside. But also because of talk that Andy Burnham, mayor of neighbouring Greater Manchester, may be at the start of a Labour leadership challenge to an ever more beleaguered Keir Starmer, now viewed by many socialist stalwarts as a Conservative in sheep's clothing.

Who would have thought just 451 days after a landslide general election victory, winning 411 of 650 parliamentary seats for a five year term, I would here be writing about the possible demise of the prime minister in question?

But there's one big problem for the would-be contender. Andy Burnham is not an MP, and has not been since he left parliament as shadow home secretary and member for Leigh in 2017.