mantle

Put alongside proposed savings of £47bn, the Conservatives think this amounts to claiming back the mantle of economic responsibility in a way that ordinary households can notice.

The living room’s fireplace is gone, but the wooden mantle remains atop a console behind the sofa, graced with a series of colorful ceramic planters by Ashley Campbell and Brian Porray of Happy Hour Ceramics.

The Tory leader will also try to reclaim the mantle of financial prudence from Labour, which has sought to position itself as the party of sound money and economic stability since winning power.

Weiss has cultivated a reputation as a reasonable dissident, eliding outright partisanship and granting her the appearance of neutrality while claiming the mantle to question progressive orthodoxy.

"We can reclaim the mantle that was once ours and can be again: we will be the party of the working class," she said – an acknowledgement that, right now at least, they are not.