Andy Burnham is apparently enjoying his first taste of unpopularity as prime minister, in the form of the furore over the early release of domestic abusers and the killers of PC Andrew Harper. None of these luxuries will be available to Burnham when he and his Chancellor John Healey confront economic reality this autumn. What will be fascinating is how Burnham deals with unpopularity. In fact, the previous prime minister arguably made himself more unpopular by panicking when he realised people were upset with him, and U-turning on whatever measure had annoyed the public or Labour MPs. Burnham comes into office with a long-established reputation for flip-flopping, but perhaps Starmer’s experience will show him that a sure-fire way to make yourself even more unpopular is to struggle with those early tastes of people being cross.