You talked of policy “trade-offs” in your speech, Robinson says.

Are you telling people who want to stop prisons or electricity pylons being built near their homes that it’s a sacrifice they have to make, the country needs them?

A “version” of that, Starmer says.

“Obviously I understand people will have their reasons to object, and of course, that should be listened to,” he says.

“But what we can’t have is what we’ve had in the last few years.

“The reason we’re in this mess with prisons – and it’s a very real mess – is because we now don’t have enough prison places for the people who are being sent to prison.

“That’s a basic failure of government, and I’m not prepared to repeat that.”

He adds there has historically been a pattern in which a government pledges to build infrastructure, but then “everybody can say, but not near me”.

“Politics is about being honest with people,” he says.