Recovery may be close but there is little comfort for the West Midlands. Its unemployment rate is 10.5 per cent, the highest in the UK, up 4.2 points in a year. The University of Warwick Institute for Employment Research says pre-recession employment levels will not have recovered by 2020.

There has been a distraction, though, in the contrasting stories of two women. One is Qu Li, a Chinese consultant who had a personal relationship with Nick Stephenson, one of the Phoenix Four directors who owned and ran MG Rover. Ms Li earned £1.7m in 15 months from the company, giving advice about potential business partners in China. Official inspectors said the fees were “much too high”.