Guido was on hand to hear Rishi Sunak’s introductory speech at Ben Houchen’s Northern Powerhouse Leaders’ Lunch this afternoon. With an opening gag that last night’s WhatsApp outage was “the longest time I’ve had in this job without Ben Houchen messaging me“, Sunak claimed that there is a “new age of optimism” in the north thanks to Red Wall Tories, and heaped them with praise for “helping to change our party and change our country“. “In me, you have a Chancellor who is going to be with you every step of the way,” he added. Houchen thanked Rishi by gifting him a celebratory coin forged from some of the last iron made on Teesside. It looks like Rishi’s still a popular man amongst his peers…