There aren’t many people sorry to see the back of Liz Truss as Prime Minister, but I know quite a few. They’re Labour activists, who regret the loss of the greatest recruiting sergeant to their cause since, well, her predecessor Boris Johnson. Both were a gift to their party thanks to his dishonesty and her ineptitude.

The arrival of Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister hasn’t exactly dented the confidence of these Yorkshire Labour members that their party will win the next election, but they recognise in him a much more formidable opponent.

The Richmond MP’s calm, unshowy competence is likely to repair at least some of the damage to the Conservatives wrought by the chaos of its previous two leaders, and that raises profound questions for Labour. For the past two years, the antics of Mr Johnson and Ms Truss have given Labour and its leader, Sir Keir Starmer, a free ride towards forming the next government.

Opinion polls pointed towards a comfortable win as an electorate sick and tired of lies, law-breaking and finally gross economic incompetence that made people poorer signalled its intentions to be done with the Tories and give Labour a chance.

Sir Keir Starmer and his team can no longer rely on the Government tearing itself apart. PIC: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Mr Johnson and Ms Truss effectively did Labour’s campaigning for it by demonstrating their unfitness to govern.

That has changed. Sir Keir and his team can no longer rely on the Government tearing itself apart. If Labour is to win the next election with a workable majority, it must start persuading the public that it has a credible and detailed programme for running the country.

And Yorkshire will be a key battleground in doing that. In particular, Labour needs to set out how it intends to level up the region’s economy, especially in the former red wall seats which switched to the Conservatives in 2019.

So far, it has failed to do so. For all the success of the Labour conference last month, in which the party appeared united and ready for office, there was a lack of detail on how it would address inequalities that continue to hold our region back.

Where were the proposals for giving young people a brighter future by addressing educational under-achievement? How will it address the deprivation that afflicts so many of our towns and cities? What is to be done about terrible railways, or providing incentives for new industries to establish themselves here?

And above all, how will Labour increase the scale and scope of regional devolution so that Yorkshire, which knows best what it needs, can realise its economic potential?

Sir Keir needs to answer these questions if he is to win the confidence of voters in Yorkshire and the wider north. He is certainly aware of that, having commissioned a constitutional review by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who last month came up with a set of proposals that went some way towards addressing the north’s concerns.

Mr Brown advocated greater powers for elected mayors over transport and education, as well as replacing the House of Lords with a new upper chamber that gives regions a more influential voice.

But so far, there is a timidity on Labour’s part in committing to greater regional clout in the service of levelling up, and it won’t do if the party is to win decisively in the north.

Mr Sunak undoubtedly recognises the need to set out a convincing narrative about levelling up if he is to have any chance of hanging onto red wall seats.

He has been shrewd in appointing Michael Gove to take charge of the stalled programme. His intellect, energy and record of getting things done makes him arguably the most effective minister in the Government, and that makes Sir Keir’s challenge all the greater.

Labour might also find itself hamstrung over what it can offer voters in the north by next month’s autumn statement on spending by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

The country already knows budgets will be squeezed, and Sir Keir risks having the tables turned on him by Government accusations of financial irresponsibility if he promises spending on major new projects but cannot show convincingly where the money will come from.

He has done a good job in restoring Labour’s credibility as a government-in-waiting after the fiasco of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, but there is still some way to go.

Sir Keir has to start making, and winning, arguments about why he should be the next Prime Minister beyond pointing to the sheer awfulness of the Government’s recent record and hoping that voters’ instincts that it might be time for a change carries Labour to victory. Yorkshire is where those arguments must be won.

Labour needs to set out how it intends to level up Yorkshire's economy - Andrew Vine