It was emotional, it was passionate, it was radical and – most of all – it was revolutionary.
We were promised a dramatic speech with big announcements unlike anything we had heard before. And that is what we got from Andy Burnham.
The prime minister currently has no electoral mandate beyond winning a by-election in Makerfield but he has just laid out an agenda more radical and revolutionary than anything seen since Margaret Thatcher tore up the post-war consensus in the 80s.
Whether it’s nationalisation of housing, water and energy, electoral reform, ending the triple lock on pensions, or a national social care service, Mr Burnham has torn up the playbook of the consensus of 40 years. And he has bet his future on the next election manifesto – which will be completely different to the one Keir Starmer put to the nation in 2024.
The cost-of-living crisis and Brexit has brought about a desire in him to be bold and different to what has happened before.
No more tinkering in the style of Sir Keir Starmer, no more Blairism – but a return to the idea that the state is the best way of securing people’s lives and providing growth.
He may be taking a risk. But this is a response to a world where Britain is weakened and lacking in money and confidence.
There is a reason that he decided to take the highly-unusual step of calling an emergency meeting of his cabinet. He had some big things to say.
You could see the difference with his predecessor from the get go.
As Mr Burnham came out to the song All Together now by British band The Farm, the applause and warmth of reception was the sort of thing that his predecessor Sir Keir could have only dreamt of.
There was no nervousness about the man coming out on the stage, just a palpable sense of relief and, indeed, hope again – as the conference slogan says.
Mr Burnham looked confident and relaxed – again in contrast to his predecessor.
This is why he feels he can “draw a line under a decade of division.”
He was able to become visibly emotional on the stage as he addressed the death of his father – not just bottle it up – knowing he was among friends.
But for those pushing for an end to Brexit, he also showed more than a bit of leg.
He has made his distaste for it clear throughout and he hinted that rejoin will be back on the agenda as he looks at options to bring us closer to Europe again.
The prime minister’s desire to draw a line on a decade of “drift and division” is a direct reference to his criticism of Brexit.
But not just that – he also wants people to feel “the country has their back again.”
It was very much in the theme of his “more of the same is not good enough” and why he wants to “break the mould.”
But the biggest conclusion of a speech, unlike any leader’s before – certainly unlike any other prime minister’s – is that Mr Burnham is not playing around here. He is the first sitting Labour prime minister to lay out a socialist agenda since the 1970s.
His plan to allow councils to buy unused private properties and to force landlords to sell represents a dramatic change in the prevailing policies since Margaret Thatcher.
He is coming after privatised water and is making the case for renationalisation on a scale which has not truly been argued since the 1960s.
When Mr Burnham said that Britain had been going in the wrong direction for 40 years, it turns out he really meant it and now he is laying out the immediate plans to reverse the Thatcher revolution.
He is the first prime minister to promise electoral reform – essentially to lock out the rightwing of British politics but also to create stability which has been missing in a decade of seven prime ministers.
Nevertheless, he will have to take a risk and, as he put it, “go through the pain barrier.” We saw that with his decision to end of the triple lock on the state pension to pay for a national care service.
This will become the electoral battleground moving to 2029 – or maybe earlier.
Mr Burnham is not a safe PM. His speech today proved he is a revolutionary.
