‘The chancellor is in a bind’: is No 11 at odds with Burnham’s big vision?

Among Burnham’s closest allies, there have been mutterings that Healey could fall into the trap of being ‘captured’ by the Treasury. Photograph: Annabel Lee-Ellis/Reuters

Until now, Andy Burnham has been a lucky prime minister. In office for just over six weeks, no major domestic crisis derailed his plans over the summer, Reform has been on the back foot, and he arrived back at Westminster with his personal approval ratings soaring and optimism undampened.

But underneath the sense of relief that many Labour MPs are feeling that their high-stakes gamble of ousting Keir Starmer appears – for now – to have paid off, there is an unease that Burnham’s premiership is yet to make contact with economic reality.