This was billed as an economic speech. There was a promise to raise living standards for everyone, a commitment to reform business rates in order to support businesses like pubs, and an intriguing if vague hint of giving people “a bit extra” to cope with rising costs.
Yet it felt like at its core this was really a speech about power and where it is exercised. Of course power is partly an economic question, but the first arguments Burnham made for devolving power related to political culture rather than economic growth.
In this broader critique of the “broken” Westminster system, Burnham attacked “finger-pointing”, which he said was “destructive of what remains of public trust in politics”.
His call for a “more collaborative politics” – perhaps a hint at seeking cross-party talks on an elusive solution to the problem of social care – became an argument for why power must be localised.
On his return to becoming a national politician, Burnham was at pains to praise the “positives in all places and all postcodes”, saying he would help rural areas and boost coastal communities.
And London, he said, is the world’s greatest capital city.
That may have been a response to the sprinkling of unease – no stronger than that – which is already being expressed by a handful of the many Labour MPs who represent seats in London and the south-east of England about Burnham’s strong association with the north-west.
There are some in Labour who look at the political and demographic trends and suggest that London and the south is now the Labour Party’s true heartland, more than some of the seats where it traditionally was strongest.
One MP who represents a seat in the north of England told me after the speech, which they generally liked: “I can see why southern MPs are worried.”
Early in his speech, Burnham remarked that Parliament seemed to be an unhappier place than when he was last an MP.
A minister who served with Burnham in the New Labour years said to me recently that they expected the change in the experience of being an MP to be one of the biggest shocks for him. Public disaffection, social media and security threats have all contributed to a different atmosphere.
Here, in a dark blue t-shirt, was an incoming prime minister palpably at ease with himself.
For Labour MPs who have found government a slog and were so spooked by the opinion polls that they ousted a landslide-winning leader within just two years, if Burnham can simply make politics fun again he will earn their support.
