With the arrival of Andy Burnham as prime minister, that has changed, despite what he said just a few months before he arrived in Downing Street.

He has been happy to repeatedly lean into an argument claiming that it is time to “face up to the reality that Brexit has done more harm than good” and “the status quo is not good enough for Britain.” First he made this case at the Labour Party Conference last month and now he has made it again in the House of Commons.

Burnham is attempting to make a two-pronged case.

First, in the short term, he wants to “deepen” the UK’s relationship with the EU at a summit in Brussels at the end of next month. He insists such a deepening would be within the promise made by Labour at the last general election that the UK would say no to the customs union, the single market and freedom of movement.

Which brings us onto the second element of his case, in the medium term. What might Labour promise in its next general election manifesto? The prime minister told me a fortnight ago the manifesto could promise an in-out referendum.

In the Commons, he sought to reassure you, whatever your view on Brexit.

“This country in the next decade needs to know where it’s going. There are no assumptions here, and as I said, the British public will be the boss of whatever is decided,” he said.

Hang on, say critics, it was decided by voters a decade ago.

“They weighed the arguments and made a decision. The least they are owed is politicians willing to defend it,” argues Lord Frost, external, a former Brexit minister and chief Brexit negotiator in the Telegraph.

The focus of the next five weeks, ahead of a UK-EU Summit in Brussels on Friday 20 November, is what Downing Street sees as short term wins on youth mobility, food and drink, and energy.

Andy Burnham hopes to make an argument that what he will portray as a sensible, pragmatic deepening of the relationship with Brussels can help cut illegal immigration and boost economic growth.

He sought to goad the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch for seeking to oppose a plan he thinks can contribute to growth. She argued it risked regurgitating yesterday’s arguments with little prospect of success.

And, strikingly, his attempt at goading his opponents went further still. He told The Rest Is Politics podcast that upon arriving in Downing Street, he had asked if there was Russian interference in the Brexit referendum.

“I’ve had a clear answer that, yes, there was,” he claimed, without saying who provided that clear answer or what the evidence for that suggested clarity was.

In the Commons, his language appeared a little softer. He told MPs it was “inconceivable” to think that Russia did not try to interfere. A double negative deployed this time, about alleged attempts at interference.

His political opponents were already pouncing. The Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was blunt – calling the prime minister “a liar.”

The former Prime Minister Boris Johnson added that he had asked the same question as Andy Burnham did when he became Foreign Secretary, external “and they replied that there was no evidence of any successful interference in the 2016 referendum, by Russia or any other power”.