Andy Burnham showed what he was made of today. The new Prime Minister could have ridden the wave of optimism following his arrival in Downing Street to play it safe with feel-good platitudes to Labour faithful. Instead he decided to be brave.
A bold move on intractable issues
Fixing social care is one of the most intractable issues in politics, one that his predecessors in Downing Street either botched or kicked into the long grass. It takes real grit to run at it like Burnham is doing. And it takes even more political courage to attempt to reform the triple lock - considered one of the untouchables in politics despite mutterings from politicians of all stripes that it is unaffordable.
Burnham wants to win the argument, to show that there is hope in saying problems can be solved, rather than pretending that everything is fine.
Personal stakes and past attempts
It is personal for him on a number of levels. He tried to reform social care as Health Secretary in 2010 with a proposal for a levy on estates after someone's death - which the Tories branded a "death tax". At the time he was determined to act after his gran Kitty had to sell her home - the house he was born in - to pay for her care. In an appalling act of cruelty, she had her wedding ring stolen from her hand in a care home.
Now he comes back to it after watching his dad Roy be cared for as he battled Alzheimer's. It took great personal courage to stand up in front of the nation and talk about his father. Burnham's dad Roy died only a matter of weeks ago, and the pain of that loss is written so clearly across his face.
A moment of grief and a standing ovation
At one point he paused for a moment, clearly overcome with grief, and the whole room held its breath. Activists got to their feet to give him a standing ovation, to cheer him on and to give him time to collect himself. To share his personal pain and explain how it fuels him lends a weight to his argument that cannot be faked.
So many people will have watched the speech at home and felt kinship with him in his loss, and his experiences of the care system. When interviewed ahead of Labour conference, he spoke about how his dad's death has fuelled his drive to fix social care. Now the public were able to see it for themselves.
