The Tories are not in the Prime Minister's wing-mirrors - Nigel Farage is

Shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith will accuse Prime Minister Andy Burnham of pursuing a ‘socialist fever dream’ as Mr Burnham sets about devolving power and pounds from Whitehall to the regions.

Mr Burnham told his Labour Party Conference audience he wants to change politics, placing at the heart of his ambitions a determination to put in place a social care system that is fit for purpose.

The Prime Minister also lamented what he characterises as a generation of relinquishing control of the basics; from water to public transport, housing to hospital procurement.

Mr Griffith, however, has accused the Prime Minister and his Chancellor John Healey of harking back to the 1970s – an imagined past, says Mr Griffith, the ghost of which cannot spook modern Britain into succeeding.

Now, rarely these days is it easy to take reassurance from anything politics related, however, the familiarity of the differences between the traditional big two parties, here, may well be an indicator that, in the wake of the shambolic Boris Johnson Government during a decade where Prime Ministers have come and gone like King Henry VIII’s wives, politics may be healing.

It is genuinely heartening to see politicians sparring on points of policy, not merely personality. The public deserve to make up their minds as to the direction of the country based on more than bluster and ego, and this looks like progress that should be welcomed. Whether or not Mr Griffith can convince the electorate – scarred by years of protracted Tory incompetence and infighting in Government – that it has reimagined and rebuilt itself enough to trust the Conservatives is another matter. In truth, Mr Griffith is not in the mirrors of Andy Burnham; Nigel Farage is. Not so much fever dream, then, for the Prime Minister but a Reform UK nightmare.