Levelling Up has to be kept alive amid all the chaos of the Johnson government

The latest edition of that soap opera now sees the police getting involved, which confuses the timetable Mr Johnson had mapped out in his head. He imagined that he would be exonerated by Sue Gray’s report, he would sack a load of No 10 staffers who had been caught partying, and then he would launch another relaunch, with Michael Gove’s Levelling Up White Paper one of the highlights.

That White Paper has to define what “levelling up” is really trying to achieve. We hope it is broad but with measurable targets, so it can look at closing the three year difference in life expectancy between the north and the south, ending health inequalities and improving educational achievements.

Although Mr Gove has no new money to spend, we hope his White Paper can reverse the historic unfairness in transport infrastructure spending and do something to address the fact that areas like the Tees Valley are going to lose twice per head the amount the rest of the country will when European regeneration funding disappears.

And greater devolution to new mayors for Durham and North Yorkshire to implement these measures would be welcome.

This is a huge agenda for the Government to tackle, but note this is just a White Paper – it is a discussion document that may lead to action.

If Boris Johnson falls in the meantime, will a more traditional Tory leader like the sound of this potentially expensive red wall friendly policy? When Theresa May became Prime Minister, she effectively ended the Cameroonian talk of the “Northern Powerhouse”, so we have to hope that Mr Johnson can steer levelling up through the chaos of partygate.