Normally when politicians really cry, it’s because they’re on their way out of a big job, rather than just getting settled. Today, Andy Burnham cried on stage at the Labour conference as he explained what he wanted to do and why he wanted to do it. He was talking about his father Roy, who died earlier this month. He told the conference hall that on the day of his father’s death, John Swinney had said that Burnham would be the last prime minister of the United Kingdom. He suspected that the First Minister of Scotland hadn’t yet heard the news of his bereavement, he added, but ‘I want you to know how it made me feel – utterly determined to prove him wrong’.

Crying doesn’t always help a politician (think of Matt Hancock wiping away a tear none of us could see live on TV when talking about the Covid vaccine rollout). But this show of emotion worked for Burnham because it was clearly genuine. It actually held him up from being able to speak for about ten seconds, with the conference hall erupting into a standing ovation to allow him to gather himself.

Burnham has always been an openly emotional politician, so it was entirely in keeping. And it wasn’t so much a loss of control as it was a sign of fire in his belly about what he wanted to achieve as Prime Minister. But the levels of emotion varied throughout the speech, giving us clues as to what Burnham is genuinely personally committed to, and what he........

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