Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Andy Burnham on a visit to a London supermarket last week
ByDamian Grammaticas Political correspondent- Published18 minutes ago
Andy Burnham is set to speak in the Commons later, addressing MPs on their first day back at work after the summer recess, in what will be a highly charged moment.
Six weeks after he walked up Downing Street, and 16 years after he last appeared at the dispatch box as part of a Labour government, he will stand before MPs for the first time as prime minister.
In the close confines of the chamber, with ranks of Labour members behind him, Burnham will finally come face to face with his political opponents.
The pressure of the occasion, the scrutiny he will face, the deftness with which he handles questions, the attacks, the barbs, the asides, will all be key to how the public perceive him.
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Downing Street does not want to give too much away but we know he will meet his cabinet before delivering a statement "setting out the direction of his government" and facing questions from MPs.
A Number 10 source said over the weekend that Burnham did not want his government to "stand by and watch on as every bill goes up and up".
So he "will promise the country that wherever we can make life more affordable we will".
Burnham has had a relatively easy summer. When he became prime minister, MPs were already on their break.
So he has been free to travel the country unveiling policies designed to help with the cost of living: a £2 cap on bus fares; removing VAT from domestic energy bills; and cutting business rates for pubs, clubs and music venues by 20% next year.
But now the challenges he will face having ousted Sir Keir Starmer begin. And there is an autumn packed with political tests coming.
There will be his first session of Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, then the spotlight of the party conferences, his first Budget and, later in the year, a speech where he will lay out a 10-year plan for the country.
It is thought this week he may say more about his plans to bring privatised services back under public control, arguing that doing so will help ease the pressure on family budgets.
Number 10 says Burnham will tell MPs he will keep taking action on the cost of living.
Image source, PA MediaImage caption, Andrew Griffith is now the Tories' new shadow chancellor
The Conservatives and Reform UK, however, are preparing to attack his policies, questioning how they will be funded and whether there will be new tax rises.
Kemi Badenoch reshuffled her shadow cabinet team on Monday in preparation for this moment. To sharpen her party's attacks on Labour over its handling of tax and the economy she promoted Andrew Griffith to be her new shadow chancellor.
The Conservatives are making much of his past jobs in business. Before entering politics he was chief financial officer and chief operating officer at Sky, and chair of Just Eat.
He is promising a Conservative government that would deliver "lower, simpler taxes, get Britain drilling again to bring down energy costs, slash the red tape holding Britain back, and scrap the job-killing measures in Labour's (Un)Employment Rights Act".
Labour and the Liberal Democrats have seized on the fact Griffith was a Treasury minister in Liz Truss's government and publicly defended her "mini-budget".
Bridget Phillipson, the Labour Party chair, said the "Tories' top team is crammed full of the same vandals who hammered family finances and left our public services crumbling".
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said Griffith's appointment showed the Conservatives were "happy to forfeit any claim to economic credibility".
Burnham will face criticism from the Greens too. Their leader, Zack Polanski, says that Burnham's ideas for greater public control over vital services is "just tinkering".
Polanski says "if he really wants to bring back hope, he needs to tax the wealthy, take water and energy back under public ownership, bring in rent controls, and say no to new North Sea drilling".
The Liberal Democrats are already attacking Burnham's plans to deal with the prisons crisis.
Their justice spokesperson, Jess Brown-Fuller, said Labour's promise to build new cells was not backed by any new money and proved "just how unserious this Government remains about fixing our justice system".
Other major challenges facing Burnham include defence. How will he fund the plans he has inherited from Sir Keir? And, beyond that, how fast will he increase spending to meet Nato commitments?
There are imminent decisions to be made about whether to approve new drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea. There are looming choices about whether to do more to help as energy bills rise this winter, whether to increase taxes at the Budget. And longer-term issues about reforms to welfare, social care and ties with the EU.
All of which means that the moment when Burnham rises to address MPs on Tuesday may well be the point when his honeymoon period as prime minister ends and the hard work begins.
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