Echo Comment on the first full day of the Burnham government

Keir Starmer’s regime got off to the worst possible start two years ago when, as soon as he took power, he said things were in a dire state, then his Chancellor discovered a £20bn black hole that meant things had to get even worse and to prove it, she clobbered the pensioners.

Andy Burnham’s reign has started in the opposite way. He says he wants to “bring back hope” and his first real announcement has been to remove VAT from electricity while saying that his cost-of-living government will “take that little bit of pressure off people’s shoulders”.

Now the £45 the VAT removal will save is paltry, especially as most of it will disappear when energy prices go up, as scheduled, this autumn.

But it is better than the slap that Rachel Reeves delivered when she tried to remove all pensioners’ winter fuel payments.

It will be interesting to see whether new Chancellor, John Healey, can convince us that this money is coming from a genuine saving that is being made by scrapping the digital ID scheme or whether it is just another visit to the magic money tree.

Mr Healey, though, is a surprise but stable appointment as Chancellor. He was respected as Defence Secretary and his resignation fatally wounded Mr Starmer’s government because it was over a point of principle, unlike Wes Streeting’s performative departure.

Now it falls to Mr Healey to find new money, from a country that is heavily taxed but without any spare change, to pay the billions needed to upscale our defence.

Mr Burnham might be hinting that things can only get better but the truth, for him at least, is that things will only get harder now he has to deliver from the hot seat.