Andy Burnham has delivered his first speech to the Labour conference as party leader and prime minister. It was no surprise to see Andy Burnham tieless and roaming the conference stage in Liverpool, unanchored by the traditional leader's speech podium. But despite the relaxed TED talk vibe, this was sober and serious speech.
He set out major new policies - not always a given on these occasions - and spoke with real emotion about his family and working class roots. There were few jokes - and in stark contrast to his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer's speech last year, he did not mention Nigel Farage or Kemi Badenoch once. But he also avoided mention of some of the trickier issues he faces, such as welfare reform and how his government will pay for promised increases in defence spending.
Follow live: Reaction and analysis of Burnham's speech Much of his speech was aimed at the party faithful, with a promise to "break with the direction of the past 40 years and put Britain on a new path", and bring back traditional Labour values. It went down extremely well in the hall. We counted 11 standing ovations in just over an hour.
The first came when he vowed to overturn Margaret Thatcher's 1980s reforms to give the public greater control over housing, water and energy. The new part was a plan to legislate later this year to repeal Thatcher's "ideological ban on public ownership of water companies". He said this would put the UK on a 10-year path to a "very different water system" - although there was not an explicit commitment to renationalisation.
The run up to the speech was dominated by speculation about whether Burnham would scrap the state pension triple lock, which guarantees increases in line with the highest of inflation, earnings or 2.5%. In the end, it was a bit more nuanced than that. He said he would "honour" Labour's commitment to keep the triple lock until the end of the current Parliament.
But from April 2030, the state pension would rise every year by inflation or 2.5%, whichever is higher, under Burnham's plans - and it will be increased in some years if needed to keep pace with average worker earnings. The change, he said, would "generate significant savings" to fund his long-held ambition of creating a National Care Service in England. "I accept I may pay a political price," he told the conference.
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