There is belief in the party that the new leader could put Labour back in the political match, political editor Chris Mason writes.

It must feel like one of the biggest weekends of Andy Burnham's life. Downing Street beckons for a man who has long dreamed of leading his party and his country. "16 years we've been thinking about this, and it's still felt like a rush in the last few weeks," admitted one supporter. A key thing to remember with Burnham's rise to this moment is that it happened slowly for a long time, and then happened quickly in next to no time at all. It was way back in 2010 that Burnham's designs on Downing Street first became explicit and public. In the aftermath of Labour's defeat in that year's general election, he contested the vacancy left by Gordon Brown. He was to do the same in 2015, in the wake of his party losing again. On both occasions he lost – and, as some have pointed out in a rather barbed way, on both occasions he lost to those who themselves were losers at general elections – Ed Miliband in 2015 and Jeremy Corbyn in 2017 and 2019. And yet as recently as January he was barred from standing as Labour's candidate for a parliamentary seat. Now, the man who barred him, Sir Keir Starmer, is packing his bags in Downing Street – a removal van has already been spotted. Sir Keir and his family will leave on Monday morning.