Burnham to face Parliament as prime minister for the first time

MPs are now back at work

While Downing Street has not given much away, what is known is that he will meet his cabinet before delivering a statement "setting out the direction of his government" and then taking questions from MPs.

Burnham is set to finally come face to face with his political opponents, in the close confines of the chamber, with ranks of Labour members behind him.

What Burnham is expected to tell MPs

According to a Number 10 source, the pitch is affordability.

The source said over the weekend that Burnham does not want his government to "stand by and watch on as every bill goes up and up" and he "will promise the country that wherever we can make life more affordable we will".

That is the thread running through a summer of announcements aimed at the cost of living: a £2 cap on bus fares, the removal of VAT from domestic energy bills, and a 20% cut to business rates for pubs, clubs and music venues next year.

Not all of it has landed smoothly, as the Sports Direct founder attacked his "populist" High Street plans, but it has given him a recognisable message to carry into the chamber.

When Burnham became prime minister, MPs were already on their break, leaving him free to tour the country unveiling policies without a weekly interrogation, but that ends on the first day of September.

As everything Andy Burnham has done since coming to power shows, the announcements have come thick and fast.

The autumn tests coming for Burnham

The challenges he faces having ousted Keir Starmer begin properly now, and the diary is unforgiving.

His first session of Prime Minister's Questions comes on Wednesday. Then the party conferences, his first Budget, and later in the year a further speech setting out his longer-term plans.

Burnham also arrives at the dispatch box with several arguments already on the record, having secured the early prison release changes he wanted, though not without cost, and he has said that unlike Starmer, he will not vote on the assisted dying bill.

On his first visit to Northern Ireland he confirmed that a border poll is off the table, another position his opponents can now put to him directly.

Six weeks of summer goodwill meets its first real test for Burnham, as the pressure of the occasion, the scrutiny, and the deftness with which he handles the attacks, the barbs and the asides will all shape how the public sees him.