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One: this is welcome Two: Burnham is the first PM in some time who’s remembered that he’s PM, so can set the agenda.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social

Prime Minister Andy Burnham says he wants a more 'honest conversation' about freedom of movement, suggesting it could work better than post-Brexit immigration has. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

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Very many years ago, I stood in front of the library in Walthamstow as part of a pro refugee demo and spent an afternoon shouting 'free movement for all'. A tough gig, but people who (angrily) interacted mostly got the point: people with rights move less/differently. The argument can be won.

I guess if there was one solid take away from Manchester it’s been that. Or the time from leaving Westminster to go to Manchester because he felt he couldn’t get anything done in Westminster and found / learned he could in Manchester has been time well spent.

I thinking fighting the government during Covid helped him find that too. The situation allowed him to find that that perhaps without the pandemic would have been harder or slower.

And yet he keeps the same Home Secretary who has come out with the cruellest policies. He opens the Jackdaw gasfield in a climate crisis to create 27 new jobs. No action against water companies polluting or Palantir taking over UK services (NHS, military) etc. He certainly does set the agenda.

One manifestation of this is that during the Starmer period you heard more about his advisors and their infighting than about him. But currently I have no idea who Burnham's advisors are.