No, what seems to be happening is now straight out of the Harold Wilson playbook from the early 1960s to the mid-70s. we saw this at the weekend when the Labour Party blocked Andy Burnham from standing for Parliament in a Manchester by-election because it threatened the party’s possession of the mayoralty in that region. Mr Burnham is probably the only Labour politician who could guarantee a win in the Denton by-election, especially if Reform UK throws all their resources at the seat. What would be more damaging for Labour, a single new Reform UK MP in the House of Commons, or a Reform UK mayor in Manchester determined to scrap the party’s main economic plan for the North? What the government has done in both these cases is straight out of the Wilson playbook – and it shows the art of sensible administration.