Perhaps the most significant way in which Burnham is trying to make boldness easier for his ministers is by encouraging them to press ahead with policies when there is a risk they will face a serious legal challenge.
The new attorney general, Ellie Reeves, has pared back rules introduced under Sir Keir which some ministers believed forced them to be over-cautious about legal risk, thereby slowing down or blocking new policies altogether.
Louise Haigh, Burnham’s deputy, has vowed to “strip out needless bureaucracy” from government more generally, citing an example of there being three public consultations between 2019 and 2023 on whether to microchip cats.
“If we can’t microchip cats without getting tied up in red tape, it should come as no surprise the public is losing faith that governments can get things done,” she said.
As Burnham moves into the next phase of his autumn, there is a recognition from some around him that he will need to produce some more significant policies to underpin his rhetoric.
Those in government familiar with early work on fleshing out his commitment to “public control” of essential services insist the direction of travel is truly radical.
Haigh is responsible for this, chairing a taskforce on how to reverse “over-privatisation” specifically of housing, water, energy and transport.
Burnham may offer more details on these policies at Labour’s conference, while he is likely to wait until after then to show his hand on whether he wants continuity or change when it comes to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s reforms to the legal immigration system – a much more divisive issue among Labour MPs.
And whatever their differences on policy, Labour MPs are united on one thing. The fundamental reason they installed a new prime minister was because many of them believed that continuing on the same path meant losing the next general election.
For them, a long-term improvement in Labour’s poll ratings would be the most important change of them all.
