The only time to allow chatter about an election date is about an hour before you announce it.
Burnham insisted today that he's not yet made what will be among his most significant decisions: the composition of his cabinet and his Downing Street staff.
A maxim of the Ronald Reagan administration was that “personnel is policy” and it's true.
Burnham cannot do every job himself, so who he puts into the key positions will determine the competence and ideological direction of his government.
That Starmer's first chief of staff, Sue Gray, lasted only three months in the job, replaced by the very different Morgan McSweeney, was an early warning of the uncertainty at the core of his administration.
In that same spirit, Burnham has to be sure about his opening moves.
His aides say there will be a burst of policy announcements next week and that's good: there can be no repeat of those Farage summers, where Labour inactivity allowed the Reform UK leader to dominate the news agenda.
But those announcements have to be the right ones.
Burnham will need no reminding of the lasting damage caused by the 2024 move to reduce the winter fuel allowance, subject to one of many eventual U-turns.
Public patience for policy reversals is exhausted, all used up by Starmer and Rachel Reeves. The new team will have to get it right first time.
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That's easier if a PM has a clear plan of action.
