Was this a joke? Andy Burnham claimed on coming to office to be a localist. Not for the new prime minister the hotspots of the capital, of posh Downing Street and Whitehall. His were the squares of Manchester and the pavements of Wigan. The centre was the enemy of local democracy.

Yet his first week in office has been consumed by one gratuitous intervention in local government after another. He gatecrashed a Westminster rough-sleeping centre and proclaimed a policy to end homelessness. He then decided to cap local bus fares, cut local pub business rates and build more social houses. For good measure, he would create a new national care service.

I know of no other country in Europe where any of these functions are required to be performed by central government. Can we imagine Emmanuel Macron running buses, or Giorgia Meloni care homes? It is as if Burnham craves to be mayor of everywhere.

There can be no more task more truly local than dealing with rough sleepers. Many years ago, when I visited the “cardboard city” near Waterloo station in London, I found volunteers struggling with up to 100 individuals. Almost all were victims of central government, of army, prison and mental hospital releases and delayed asylum claims. There are now thought to be........

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