What Keir Starmer's levelling up landgrab reveals about Labour's election strategy: The Yorkshire Post says

It was the latest in a long line of Labour attacks on Boris Johnson’s flagship policy that admittedly had a considerable amount of wind taken out of its sails by his departure as Prime Minister.

However, the catchy concept for trying to reduce regional inequality has remained a largely popular idea despite the many and varied legitimate criticisms of how it is actually being delivered in practice.

So it was fascinating to see Sir Keir Starmer change his party’s tune on the topic in his first keynote speech of the election campaign which was an unambiguous pitch to centre-ground voters disillusioned with the Conservative party.

Starmer seized on the news that Rishi Sunak’s controversial idea for mandatory National Service for teenagers would be funded from money previously earmarked for levelling up by suggesting it would be his party that would take forward the latter policy.

He framed the election as a choice between NHS investment and “levelling up... with Labour or more desperate chaos with the Tories”.

That new line is also telling about Labour’s broader approach to the election on other totemic issues such as economic management and border security; the thrust of their argument tends to be about much-improved delivery instead of proposing entirely new ideas for how the country should be run.

Whether or not levelling up ends up being rebadged should Labour get into office, the idea of making the country more equal so people living in places like Yorkshire have more opportunities and better lives is one that simply has to be pursued whoever is in power.