All summer long, Andy Burnham has been cultivating a fresh, modern style of communication - a steady stream of social media videos designed to speak directly to the public, presumably without the need for a despatch box or a ceremonial mace. But as the prime minister is discovering, no amount of slick online content can save you from the weekly Westminster ritual known as Prime Minister's Questions.
To the uninitiated, PMQs might seem like a quaint anachronism in our hyper-digital age. But to the Westminster faithful, it remains a vital moment of scrutiny - a chance for the public to peer into Parliament's workings and for backbench MPs to judge their leaders' performance. So a new prime minister's debut matters, even if it looks suspiciously like the same old political theatre.
Burnham took his place in the House of Commons chamber to raucous cheers from the packed Labour benches, striking a confident tone from the start. He was clearly keen to maintain the sense of optimism he's promised the country. His initial exchanges with Kemi Badenoch were vaguely jocular - she opened with a joke about his stamina after Tuesday's marathon Commons session, where he took questions for over three hours. There was laughter, a cautious smile, and then - surprise, surprise - the conversation swiftly devolved into familiar territory: trading barbs over tax and borrowing, with Badenoch making claims of profligate government spending.
Burnham, despite his promises to end political "point scoring," was soon pointing the finger at the Tories for their economic record, name-dropping Liz Truss's budget while vowing fiscal discipline. He's not the first PM to pledge a new style of politics only to find it hard to dodge the adversarial nature of PMQs. David Cameron said he'd end "Punch and Judy politics" back in the day, and we all know how that turned out.
But while the barbs continued, it's clear Burnham is a more comfortable communicator than his predecessor. His real challenge, however, will be delivering more than just a change in tone. The backdrop to his first few days in office has been the increased cost of borrowing - a global trend, yes, but one to which the UK is particularly exposed, and one that's likely to cramp the chancellor's style at the budget at the end of October.
Burnham has promised a transformational government, but he's facing many of the same challenges as Sir Keir Starmer - with difficult decisions on defence spending, welfare, and social care hurtling towards him. These are the pressure points his opponents will seek to exploit, as Badenoch's PMQs approach demonstrated when she quizzed him on tax, spending, and borrowing plans.
Burnham pointed to his early actions - cutting VAT on domestic electricity bills and business rates for pubs and music venues - as signs of his priorities. But he gave little more away, leaning on the familiar refrain that PMs don't write budgets from the despatch box. To be fair, expecting detailed economic plans during his very first PMQs would be unreasonable, but these are questions his government will eventually have to answer.
Burnham's early weeks have seen a definite stylistic shift from his predecessor, with a summer tour around the country and heavy social media presence. He's made efforts to spell out what his government stands for - cost of living, shifting power from Westminster, and greater public control of essential services. By his own admission, these announcements are just a start.
Now that Westminster is back in session, there will be a clamour for more details on his direction. Today's PMQs was merely a taste of what's to come. As well as smart communications, the choices Burnham makes will require careful navigation if he's to deliver the optimistic future he's promised. And perhaps a thick skin for those weekly despatch box sparring matches.