If there has been one criticism of the new Andy Burnham government, it has been that he is essentially doing the same as Keir Starmer – just with a smile.
That seemed apparent today as chancellor John Healey gave a masterclass in Burnhamist leadership style when he retabled welfare cuts in front of the Labour conference.
But it would be wrong to sneer at presentation when, in some ways, that was the biggest failure of Sir Keir and former chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Ministers in Mr Burnham’s government are talking privately about how they know they need to get the welfare budget down without publicly talking about cuts.
During his speech at conference, Mr Healey expressed it out loud – but not in terms of a cost saving. Instead, he made it a justice issue and talked about how the Tories had left a million young people on the scrap heap.
What Mr Healey and Mr Burnham are keen to do is avoid the mistakes made by Sir Keir’s government which was forced into a humiliating retreat on welfare reform because it was packaged as a £5bn saving at the behest of Ms Reeves.
One minister told The Independent: “I never understood why Keir did not present it as a £20bn increase in welfare because the £5bn was only a slow down of the rise.”
That certainly may have helped him avoid the catastrophic defeat that he suffered at the hands of rebelling Labour MPs who forced him into a U-turn which eventually saw his government unravel as he lost authority.
Mr Burnham and Mr Healey appear to have learnt the lesson.
Instead of cuts, the chancellor announced a national apprenticeship service led by devolved mayors to get young people into work.
The unspoken part is that they will no longer be claiming sickness benefits.
But he pointedly talked of a smaller welfare bill. “It is not progressive to allow a bigger and bigger benefits bill, and a system which offers an income but doesn’t offer a future,” he told conference.
One cabinet minister told The Independent: “We know we have to bring the bill down but it how we do it and how we bring people (Labour MPs) along with us.”
Another noted: “Andy is so much better at the presentation side. These days if you are not on the pitch presentationally then you will fail.”
Part of that presentation, though, is a new confidence in saying what people believe.
We saw that in the latitude given to party chair Bridget Phillipson in her conference interview with The Independent where she spoke out loud over how the parties of the right are “weaponising” the national emergency of violence against women.
She would never have been allowed to be so bold in the Starmer government.
For Mr Healey and others, it is the confidence of talking about the failure of Brexit.
If you have any doubts that Labour under Mr Burnham is looking at reversing Brexit, listen to the point made by his chancellor.
In his speech to conference, Mr Healey notably pointed to “Boris Johnson’s Brexit” as a reason why this government does not have the same amount of money that New Labour did when he was a minister in Gordon Brown’s Treasury.
He also attacked the Liz Truss mini Budget, but there is a growing confidence among Labour ministers to talk down and attack Brexit.
These are the foothills of starting a case to return to rejoin even if there is a long way to go.
And the chancellor and prime minister can get away with it because they are – and sound – authentically Labour, something Sir Keir never did.
Mr Healey came to the stage at conference as chancellor but read out his Labour credentials from constituency to union membership.
He talked about his first conference in 1986 and the figures of the past like Neil Kinnock, John Smith and John Prescott.
For a party that has been through a bruising period and had to change leadership halfway through a government, it was important he did that.
The Labour Party in Liverpool has not been celebrating – it has felt a little uncertain about the new management.
It needed a top figure to remind them that he is authentically a Labour man.
That will allow him and his boss to tackle thorny issues like welfare reform and Brexit in a period where they have no money to play with.
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