For what it’s worth, the moment I’ll remember from Andy Burnham’s speech to Labour conference was one without any words at all.
Three-quarters of an hour into the address, the prime minister stood on stage in front of hundreds of captivated listeners and said nothing at all for 56 seconds. For the first 20 seconds, the room was completely silent before it broke into a standing ovation.
It was a moment unlike any other I’ve seen during a leader’s speech. A little awkward, yes, but there was a power to it as well.
The room, or most of it, seemed to trust the new leader to handle this moment of vulnerability. I suspected he was preparing to talk about his dad’s death – a raw grief, barely over two weeks old – and I was right.
But it wasn’t just the emotion that made Burnham’s speech this afternoon extraordinary. It was packed with ideas and new policies that went down well among the Labour faithful.
Inevitably, it’s one specific policy proposal that will dominate the coming days, and may well be the main thing people remember about the speech going forward.
The PM’s his plan to ‘adjust’ the triple lock at the start of the next decade by removing the element that links state pension increases to wage growth represented a rare thing – a genuine, deliberate political risk.
It’s a risk that no other British politician who will face a future election, never mind a current party leader, has taken before as far as I’m aware.
Until now, criticism of the pension triple lock has only come from those who are planning to leave parliament or those who have already left, meaning they would not need to handle the consequences from furious voters.
According to the received wisdom, anyone who decides to kill this sacred cow (or even to reshape it a little, as Burnham proposes) will lose their next election, despite near-universal agreement it’s unsustainable in the long term.
The PM appears to think he will be able to convince the electorate that the reward for making this move will be worth it: universal free social care in England, following the principles of the NHS.
It will be fascinating to watch this debate play out, and to see just how accurate that received wisdom is.
At the same time, we shouldn’t let that proposal overshadow all the other big plans Burnham set out in his speech.
A new National Care Service that will be as ‘significant as the creation of the NHS’. Repealing the ban on public ownership of water companies. Closer ties with the European Union. A new national commission on electoral reform, to work out how the voting system might change.
(I noticed that not every Labour MP in the room joined the standing ovation for that last one.)
Throughout this year’s Labour conference, people have not stopped talking about how different the ‘vibes’ feel compared to the abject misery of 2025. And Burnham’s speech couldn’t have felt more different to those from Starmer.
It wasn’t just the lack of a lectern or tie. The PM managed to move many people in the room to tears, both with his words and without them. His predecessor struggled to do the same.
One monster question remains, though. These plans may have found their ideal salesman, but can the soaring rhetoric be matched with action?
In the end, we may find that the ultimate test for Burnham is not his first conference speech as prime minister. It will be whether, unlike Starmer, he gets to make more than two.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
MORE: Andy Burnham wells up as he remembers dad in first Labour conference speech as leader
MORE: What is the pensions triple lock and why is it controversial?
MORE: Angela Rayner blasts 90s trance hits from DJ decks at Labour conference