𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

I got my first proper glimpse of what Andy Burnham the Prime Minister is all about this week. He’d chosen to deliver his first major speech since entering No 10 at a care home to unveil a few more details about his plans to overhaul the country’s broken social care system.

This was terra-firma for Burnham, who’d been banging on about the need for a rethink when was Health Secretary back in the Gordon Brown days. He also has a personal interest as his father is being looked after in a care home because he suffers from Alzheimer’s.

At the beginning of his speech in north London Burnham said he had decided not to speak from his notes but “from the heart” because of the emotional subject.

He said he wanted to do what no politician or prime minister had managed to do in the past 30 years – overhaul the social care system “for my dad and the millions like him up and down the country.” It was a passionate start and one that showed the side of Burnham that his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, never had. Warmth. Personality. An ability to relate to everyday people.

But then came the ramble. Speaking with no notes is an art form and not many can carry it off.

David Cameron could, he famously nailed a conference speech with no notes in 2005 which slingshotted him from outsider to frontrunner in the Tory leadership race which he ultimately won.

Nigel Farage almost always speaks without notes and with powerful impact. Anyway, I’m rambling. Back to Burnham.

He got bogged down in the middle part of his speech, socialism oozing from every meander as he suggested that we’ll all have to pay more in taxes help give his masterplan a leg up, before coming out the other side for a strange finale in which he repeatedly attacked the media for chasing headlines on how social care is going to be funded.

This, and Burnham’s aversion to taking many questions from the media, shows that this fledgling Prime Minister is still most comfortable when on social media, not in the full blaze of the media spotlight.

It’ll be intriguing how he copes with a bazookering from Kemi Badenoch when two finally face-off across the the dispatch box in early September. I suspect his “beer, chips and gravy” schtick will be firmly wiped off his face when the Tory leader gets stuck into him. He also has a tendency, dare I say it, to respond to some questions rather like Donald Trump.

Where most politicians give a politicians answer (be economical with the truth, shall we say), Burnham sometimes can’t help himself and shoots from the hip, that personal passion coming through again.

He did so when asked about his views on Assisted Dying. Rather than shutting it down and giving a vague answer, Burnham – the country’s first Catholic Prime Minister – called for the debate on legalising assisted dying to be put on hold until palliative care and social care has been fixed.

In many ways it’s admirable to have a PM who wants to speak so freely. But it can also land you in trouble. Much to look forward to when parliament returns from its lengthy summer recess.

I’m taking a break from writing duties for the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, my colleagues will give you the inside track on what’s going on in British politics – including Nigel Farage’s bid to win the Clacton by-election against, among other candidates, Count Binface.

Until the next time!