Can Andy Burnham turn good vibes into hard choices?

Frank.

He has a long time in politics.

Andy Burnham came to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool this time last year, was treated like a pariah, was driven out of Liverpool with his tail between his legs, metaphorically speaking.

He comes back a year later as Prime Minister.

How times have changed.

You've got your finger on the political pulse.

What's the mood like in Liverpool and what's the mood like in the Labour Party,

Frank? Well, it's been an incredible year, hasn't it? When you look back on it for Andy Burnham in particular, I think I was reflecting on this.

We did an event with Andy the last conference and it was the day after everything had sort of blown up almost in his face and it was all on the back of a comment he'd made to the new statement suggesting that he didn't think government should be in hock to the bond markets.

Now he would argue that that particular comment was taken out of context but at the time it enabled people like Rachel Reeves, Keir Starmer and their gang to actually say, this guy isn't serious.

You know, he's a he's a people pleaser.

He doesn't understand the economy.

And therefore it ended up being a situation for Andy where it looked as if he'd gone too soon.

And as you say, rightly, Chris, he left that conference battered and bruised a little.

So for him to come back, I think, demonstrates a couple of things.

Firstly, We talked about this previously.

Keir Starmer's continued poor performance beyond that conference and then the disastrous local election results.

But equally, Andy Burnham's resilience, because an awful lot of people would have gone away from that annual conference last year and said, bugger that, I'm not putting myself through that again.

So the fact that he stuck with it and maintained that confidence and that belief that he should be Prime Minister at the moment and he could lead a Labour government to a more successful election position I think is testament to as I say the guy's resilience but 12 months on where are we well obviously he comes here as Prime Minister he's got a big speech on Tuesday where I think he'll be broad brush in terms of some of the commitments and the comments that he makes he's still said that he wants to produce this 10-year plan now my advice to him was he needs to get on with that okay let's get the conference and the budget out the way, but then he really does need to roll his sleeves up and get some flesh on the bones of policy and make people understand and appreciate where he wants to take the country over the next decade.

But when you ask me what the mood of the Labour Party is in comparison to where it was last September, it's night and day.

Head again in the polls, good vibes from Andy Burnham, people feeling optimistic and bizarrely perhaps, but some comfort also derived from the fact that Kenny Badenoch and the Conservatives have started to come second in some of the polling that's been done recently.

And although I'm not suggesting there's any sort of loving between Labour and the Conservatives, I think if you asked the activists of both of those parties what is their worst fear, it's a reformed government.

So to see the Tories actually improving the polls has also given the Labour Party, bizarrely, a little bit of a boost.

I, last year at the Labour conference, no one in Labour could see Labour winning the next election when Keir Starmer was PM.

And actually, I said at the time that Andy Burnham pitting his head above the parapet and suggesting that he was, you know, very interested in being the next prime minister and challenging Keir Starmer.