Politicians have in the past seen the summer as an opportunity to get away and recharge their batteries.

That has all changed - largely because of the rise of the 24/7 news agenda and also because public expectations of political accountability are now greater.

So at a local level, appearing at summer fetes in the constituency, judging the cake competition, announcing the raffle results and glad-handing local supporters take on added importance. Especially now voters have the means by which to trigger deselections.

At a national level, the main parties now see the summer recess as an opportunity to highlight the successes or failures of a particular policy pledge – as well as a time to dump on rivals.

The Conservatives have opted to showcase their key policy pledges around illegal immigration and processing asylum seekers ‘off shore’ - a risky strategy.

Why? Because while the issue of processing the claims of asylum seekers serves to act as a reminder that the government is doing something, it also reminds people that it has taken a long time to get anything done.

Feeding into this narrative is a reminder it is not for want of trying that ministers have been thwarted from putting in place their new measures - which are partly designed to curb the huge costs of putting up the thousands who have crossed the Channel in hotels.

The figures are striking: at the end of March 2023 there were more than 47,000 asylum seekers across the country being accommodated in hotels, at a cost of £6m a day.

It also means a focus away from the Channel ports and the images of dinghies and small boats arriving crowded with people - mostly men - hoping for a new start in life.

The irony is that would-be migrants who have arrived largely on small boats may well find that they are to be offered accommodation on larger vessels.

But if the government succeeds in getting some traction on the problem, it will consider the adverse publicity it will undoubtedly get for using spartan accommodation on boats a price worth paying.

And for Kent’s Conservative MPs, it may take the heat out of an issue that remains problematic for them, particularly in the context of the claim that Brexit would give the country back control of its borders.