Burnham revels on public stage but has little time to hammer ideas into shape

A significant story is unfolding on the international scene. Burnham revels on public stage but has little time to hammer ideas into shapeImage source, ReutersByChris Mason Political editorPublished13 minutes agoTwo things stand out watching Andy Burnham, as I've done during the recent by-election campaign and in the ten or so days since. The first is that he is a politician who revels in being on the public stage: comfortable in his own skin, comfortable in front of a microphone and cameras, and confident in venturing off script and ad-libbing to respond to things as they unfold. The second thing is he revels in doing the vision thing: setting out, with passion, the route he believes could lead to a better society and why he reckons he could lead us there.

"A leader with politics and vision. Quite something," one Labour MP told me, the comparison with Sir Keir Starmer implicit in his compliment of Burnham. Don't underestimate the contrast many Labour figures will draw between the current prime minister and his likely imminent successor on these points alone.

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Whether it is anywhere near enough to make a success of governing, let's see, but it is a difference being widely pointed to. "There is no such thing as Starmerism and there never will be," the brilliant chroniclers of Sir Keir's years of leadership Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund quote him as saying in their book Get In: The Inside Story of Labour and the Starmer Project. The equivalent line wouldn't be one you would hear from Burnham.

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So now many of them exude a sense of relief, even joy, that Burnham, on the big picture at least, appears to know his own mind. It hasn't always been like this: Burnham's critics a decade ago, after he had fought and lost his second Labour leadership race, would joke about his indecision and capacity to change his mind. Elements of this critique have returned more recently, from some, given his changing outlook on the Waspi women campaign, the government's borrowing rules and on trans rights, for instance.

But it also true that Burnham's time as the Mayor of Greater Manchester has allowed him to develop and road test a political outlook he now wants to extend to the UK as a whole. Devolution, the pushing of power away from Westminster, is at the centre of this. A couple of years ago Burnham co-authored a book with the Labour mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.