Andy Burnham promises hope and change - but the funding of his promises raises questions

It's been ten weeks since Andy Burnham became Britain's Prime Minister on a sweltering July day. Before he stepped through the black door of Downing Street and began his work, he clenched his fist in a victory gesture and said he would "rekindle hope" in the country.

In his first line speech at Labour's ongoing party conference, he repeated the mantra.

"Hope again," read the pink placards that surrounded him as he entered the convention hall in Liverpool. The words reflected the mood well. Andy Burnham, with his sunny, boyish mood and vision, has undeniably injected new confidence into a party that has often doubted its own leaders.

But hope – this hopeless word – is not a self-generating state. It must be fed with political action. Burnham is totally up to it and already during the campaign period he made big promises to create 1.5 million new homes in five years, re-industrialize the country and move power closer to the people.

In his hour-long congressional address on Tuesday, he made further brazen assertions. Burnham promised a new British economy that serves people, not investors. It is a clear break with the prevailing idea, not only among economists, that what is good for the market is good for everyone.

More concretely, he spoke about expanding social and elderly care, repealing Margaret Thatcher's legislation that prevents public ownership of water companies and scrapping the VAT on household electricity bills as early as Thursday.

It goes without saying that it will be expensive.

The UK's economy has recovered somewhat in recent months after a difficult period, but the costs of government borrowing are still very high. Where will the money that Burnham needs for his huge ventures come from?

The British have longed for a visionary leader and got one.

He will return to it, he said when he was asked by the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday. He then assured that he will not do anything that he cannot stand for.

Such vague answers hardly reassure the banks. "The market suspects that this is a traditional socialist government raising taxes and spending, albeit with better Tiktok videos," Andy Haldane, former chief economist of the Bank of England, said recently when asked to comment on Burnham's policies.

The voters, on the other hand, seem optimistic.

Opinion polls show that more Britons believe they will be better off in 2027 compared to this year. Support for Labor has increased since the beginning of the summer. In part, that can be explained by the fact that the party's main challenger, the right-wing populist Reform UK, has been exposed with unreported donations from crypto-billionaires. In part, it's a Burnham effect.

Andy Burnham is more popular than his party. But the problems with the money are breathing down his neck.

So does the Brexit issue. London Mayor Sadiq Khan this weekend called on the Prime Minister to immediately start work on rejoining the EU.

It is no small undertaking. In his congressional speech, Burnham admittedly said that Brexit had done more harm than good.

He did not go into whether and, if so, how he envisions Britain approaching the EU. He has also postponed this question for the future.

Burnham has enjoyed two long honeymoons in Downing Street. The British have longed for a visionary leader and got one. It does not prevent that they will soon demand an answer to the question: What must we give up in order for your grand promises to be fulfilled?