Raf Baer

And on the foreign affairs portfolio generally, he's actually handled a very, very difficult diplomacy quite well.

I think people might criticize the relationship with Donald Trump saying he got too cozy too early on, but actually I think a lot of that was very necessary, particularly when a priority was trying to forestall a Donald Trump total betrayal of Ukraine.

which he was instrumental in doing and has so far not fully happened yet.

But other than that, there isn't a whole lot because what was Keir Starmer's thing?

What was he about that you could then say, and at least he achieved that?

And the answer is no one really knows.

No one knew.

And that's why he's resigned.

I think the winning maker field is important, not just because Burnham won the by-election, but the scale of it.

Because that does suggest that, as Andy Burnham's supporters will say, he has something that can reach voters that Keir Starmer clearly, if he ever had it, had lost.

And that...

He brings an ability to at least get a hearing and start from a position of a bit of benefit of the doubt, people ready to give you a chance.

And what Makerfield showed also is there are an awful lot of people in this country who, if they don't know very much about politics or what they want, the one thing they know very clearly is they really, really don't want Nigel Farage to be prime minister.

A lot of people voted for Farage.

Andy Burnham in that by-election because they thought he could be the person ultimately to stop reform.

And so that's a kind of a proof of concept for what the next general election is going to be, not exclusively about, but substantially about for Labour.

On the downside, something that is often said about Andy Burnham by people who served with him in government, which is to be fair a long time ago now,

is that he's not someone who likes to annoy people.

He's a people pleaser.

And he will duck hard choices.