Rishi Sunak hits the north to try to woo public – but only the invited

It’s like this: Rishi Sunak during a visit to the Eden Project North in Morecambe. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

Rishi Sunak flew to the north of England on Thursday, on a 14-seat RAF jet, to show voters there that he understood the cost-of-living crisis.

The prime minister travelled from Accrington to Morecambe and on to Hartlepool on a whistle-stop tour aimed at promoting the government’s “levelling up” agenda but which also foreshadowed what could be a long election campaign ahead.