https://www.telegraph.co.uk/?WT.mc_id=e_DM968542&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_FTE_New_Sub&utmsource=email

Good morning.

"Andy Burnham is angling to be Britain's next prime minister, but does anybody really know who he is? Gordon Rayner, our Associate Editor, examines the ever-changing beliefs and alliances that have defined Burnham's career, and what he would stand for should he get the keys to No 10.

Elsewhere, our reporters take you inside Chequers, where Lady Starmer is urging her husband to fight on. Finally, the Makerfield by-election was bruising for Reform UK. The question being asked is: has Nigel Farage's party peaked?

Chris Evans, Editor

Andy Burnham in 2004, when he was parliamentary private secretary to the education secretary
Gordon Rayner

Gordon Rayner

Associate Editor

Who is the real Andy Burnham? Is he the Armani-suited Westminster insider of the Blair years, or the jeans-and-T-shirt man of the people who takes on the London elite from his base in the North?

After winning the Makerfield by-election, he is on his way back to Parliament, where, if he vanquishes Sir Keir Starmer, he will need to explain to the British public what he truly stands for.

That might require a lot of thinking on his part. Over his 32-year career in politics, he has hitched his wagon to whichever horse he thought would carry him on the next part of his journey.

He boasts that he has been loyal to Blair, Brown, Miliband and Corbyn, seemingly unaware of the inherent contradiction that entails.

On public spending, on the EU, on Israel and on so much else, he has performed whatever contortion has been necessary to align himself with the most expedient position of the day.

Already there are those within Labour who are warning that he shares the same fundamental weakness as Starmer: that he has no settled political position, other than the belief that he should be prime minister.

If he realises that ambition, the real Andy Burnham will finally need to reveal himself."