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

Burnham revels on public stage but has little time to hammer ideas into shapeImage source, ReutersByChris MasonPolitical editorPublished2 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.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.New 'No 10 North' plan will rebalance power in Britain, Burnham promisesPublished5 hours agoWill Andy Burnham's devolution plan raise economic growth?Published4 hours agoChris Mason: Burnham starts to sketch out his vision as potential prime ministerPublished1 day agoSir Keir's argument was that he would be pragmatic, not bound by ideology or too fixed a worldview. But his internal critics long privately grumbled, and more recently increasingly publicly grumbled that this amounted...