Will Burnham Find PMQs as Nerve-Wracking as Blair?

Andy Burnham arrives at the despatch box for his first Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, facing a parliamentary ritual that has been held at bay for six weeks by parliament's summer recess. For a new prime minister, that delay is without precedent in recent terms: the routine forms of Commons scrutiny that typically greet a new occupant of Downing Street within days of taking office are arriving all at once.

The weight of the occasion has been well documented by those who have gone before. Sir Tony Blair, in his memoirs, wrote that PMQs was "the most nerve wracking, discombobulating, nail biting, bowel moving, terror inspiring, courage draining experience in my prime ministerial life, without question". Whether Burnham will share that verdict remains, as yet, an open question.

BBC News political editor Chris Mason, watching from the Press Gallery as Burnham made his initial appearance in the Commons as prime minister, observed him hovering by the Speaker's chair, flanked by Labour's Deputy Leader, Lucy Powell — who appeared to brush some fluff from the back of his jacket — and Louise Haigh, his first secretary of state. The customary roar of approval from Labour MPs followed as he took his seat, a display Mason notes tends to persist almost irrespective of the political weather surrounding a leader.

Wednesday's session follows approximately three and a half hours of parliamentary questions Burnham faced on Tuesday afternoon, meaning PMQs arrives less as an isolated trial than as a further extension of an already demanding period of scrutiny. His opponents have privately acknowledged his more upbeat demeanour and sunnier disposition as politically astute, while readying themselves to press him on what they characterise as a trio of vulnerabilities: overcrowded prisons, underfunded defence, and unreformed social care.

From Burnham's opening Commons appearance, Mason identified a handful of substantive disclosures: the prime minister confirmed he will attend the COP climate summit later this autumn; he attributed economic damage to Brexit; and he indicated — without supplying detail — that he would find the funding to increase defence spending. Mason's assessment is that little emerged beyond those nuggets that was not already known.

A deliberate drip

Burnham's team, according to Mason's reporting, hope a pattern of carefully timed disclosures becomes familiar — ideas and policies dripped into the national conversation and allowed to solidify over time, rather than announced without preparation. The prime minister has also moved to recast the PMQs format itself, posting on social media: "I want to be talking to you, the public, not just the House of Commons, so let's make it People's Major Questions rather than Prime Minister's Questions, so send me what you want to ask me and I'll answer them after the other PMQs." Whether that initiative sustains public interest beyond its novelty is a question Wednesday's session will only begin to answer.