He is due to become prime minister in just over a fortnight as parliament begins its six-week summer break. But at a marquee speech this week, he took precisely zero questions. So is Andy Burnham, as the opposition leader, Kemi Badenoch, claims, dodging scrutiny? His allies say no: he is simply going about it in his own way.
The former Greater Manchester mayor is very obviously a different type of communicator from Keir Starmer, and therefore always likely to convey his message in methods beyond Starmer’s traditional questions after a speech and the occasional stilted broadcast clip.
