I’ve covered Labour for decades – ask me anything on Andy Burnham’s first conference as PM

Welcome to an exclusive Ask Me Anything session with me, John Rentoul, chief political commentator at The Independent.

To see my questions and answers, scroll down – and don't forget to press “load more” to catch the full Q&A.

Andy Burnham arrives at his first Labour conference as prime minister in a better position than his party has enjoyed for a long time. Labour is four points ahead of Reform UK on average in the latest opinion polls, and voters prefer Burnham to both Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch as prime minister. But seven in ten are still dissatisfied with how the country is being run, and his own ratings with Ipsos are hardly glowing: 31 per cent satisfied, 44 per cent dissatisfied.

He has found a neat way to dodge the “foreignitis” that afflicts every prime minister eventually. Since taking over in July, our stay-at-home prime minister has hosted Ireland’s prime minister, Micheál Martin, at No 10 North in Manchester, Mark Carney at an Everton game in Liverpool, Mark Rutte in Oxford and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Portsmouth. I am no fan of devolution, but as a political device it has worked a treat – at least until the hard choices in the Budget at the end of next month.

Then there is the question of whether he should strike while the iron is hot. Burnham says he does not intend to call an early election, but some Labour sources see next month's Holborn and St Pancras by-election, where Zack Polanski is standing for the Greens, as a test run. Sir John Curtice has warned that going early means risking three years to gain two – a bad deal, in his view.

Meanwhile, Reform has been promised a record £72m in donations in just two days from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne. I remain convinced that all the money in the world cannot buy Farage the next election.

I'll be discussing all this and more – Burnham's early-election dilemma, what No 10 North really means, and whether Labour's poll lead can survive contact with the Budget – in an exclusive Ask Me Anything session for The Independent.

I have spent decades writing about Labour leaders and the politics of winning and holding power, including a biography of Tony Blair, and I'll be here to answer all your questions, from whether Burnham should go to the country early to what he should say to the unions and the opposition parties.

Submit your questions below and join me for the Ask Me Anything Q&A on Friday 25 September, from 2pm to 3pm BST. I'll try to answer as many as I can within the hour!

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