When Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood arrived in Downing Street on Monday afternoon, the image of political rivals arm in arm symbolised a new government of differing views taking shape. It might have been more awkward. As they neared the door of No. 10 and the waiting television cameras, Miliband turned to Mahmood and asked: ‘Should we turn around for a photo together?’ Mahmood gave the idea short shrift: ‘We’re not getting married, Ed!’

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But in a sense Labour is seeking a new relationship with the British public and everyone around Andy Burnham is alive to the importance of images, symbols and vibes. As Wes Streeting, the new Defence Secretary, put it in cabinet on Tuesday: ‘We have a second chance to make a first impression with the voters.’ It was a line Burnham liked so much he repeated it and No. 10 briefed it to journalists as his own.

Yet after less than a week as Britain’s 59th premier, Burnham is already sending mixed messages to his audience as his vision for the country runs into the reality of the state of the public finances. ‘We need to be a cost-of-living government,’ the PM told his first cabinet meeting. ‘Life’s hard out there, isn’t it, at the moment?’ But having appointed John Healey, rather than Mahmood or Miliband, as Chancellor, he added: ‘We’ve got to show fiscal discipline. We’ve got to show that our commitment to the fiscal rules is real. Boldly Labour, but prudently Labour as well at the same time. That’s the thing we’ve got to pull off.’

Easier said than done. Burnham has already announced £340 million to tackle rough sleeping, another £850 million to remove VAT from domestic electricity bills and £450 million to cap bus fares at £2 nationwide. The appointment of Healey, who resigned as defence secretary because Starmer refused to back spending 3 per cent of GDP on defence by 2030, implies a commitment to send more money to the MoD – and Burnham has also indicated a desire to raise foreign aid spending back to 0.7 per cent of GDP. A prominent figure on the Labour right observes: ‘0.7 per cent on aid, 3 per cent on defence, not touching the triple lock… energy bills capped, transport fares capped. You get to £50 billion very quickly. And 1p on the basic rate of income tax raises you five to eight billion on a good day, under favourable circumstances, if you squeeze your eyes one way and keep your fingers crossed the other.’

These are eye-watering sums of money, which imply very significant tax rises in the autumn Budget. However you cut it, this is on course to be the most economically left-wing government since the 1970s.

But the details are vague, not least because plans Burnham and his team have openly considered already seem to have run into the buffers. On Tuesday, the Prime........

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