One of the most telling election results last week was St Helens council going to Reform.

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And honestly, knowing St Helens as well as I do, I cannot say it surprised me in the slightest.

I worked there for years at Radio Merseyside. My first proper paid summer job was there too, in a Ladbrokes branch of all places. I have family members who worked there as police officers for years. I know the town’s warmth, humour and resilience. I also know its frustrations.

And St Helens is exactly the kind of place where people feel that, whoever has been in power over the last 40 years, life has not really improved for them. Not in a way they can feel day to day.

So when lifelong Labour voters turn to Reform, I do not think it is some great mystery. People feel ignored. They feel life is getting harder. And they no longer believe Labour understands them.

Angela Rayner seemed to acknowledge some of that after the local election results when she told the Communication Workers Union that people feel “the system is rigged against them” and that Labour “must be the party for working people”.

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