Andy Burnham addressed the Labour Party's annual conference in Liverpool last Tuesday for the first time as Prime Minister, setting out a self-image as an outsider who is different from Westminster politicians.
On welfare, Burnham said: "I am ready to do things my predecessors wouldn't. I have to be honest about what the country can afford. We will need a fundamental rethink of the welfare system." He promised to reduce the welfare bill, but "not through crude cuts. That should never be the Labour way." Instead, he said he would achieve it by "investing in people in their success, supporting them to get where they want to be".
Alan Milburn, the former health secretary conducting a review of Young People and Work, has already said his recommendations will require major investment before significant savings ensue.
On the UK's future relationship with the EU, Burnham said: "I am announcing a new national commission on electoral reform. I invite all the political parties to be part of its work."
The article, by Eliot Wilson, argues that Burnham's claim to be different rests on style and rhetoric rather than action, and notes that Sir Keir Starmer's earlier welfare reforms were stripped out during parliamentary debates, leaving the Universal Credit Act 2025 as a flimsy, tinkering statute.