But the man himself is not expected to announce his team until he’s almost through the black shiny No 10 door.
He’s told colleagues he’ll set the direction of his plans before deciding who gets what job. The wannabes will have to wait. Burnham, for now, holds all the cards.
But even though he is not yet the Labour leader, a formal handover process has begun – “access talks”.
Just like before a general election, the incoming team has been given permission by the sitting prime minister to start conversations with the civil service about what they want to do.
Cabinet Secretary Antonia Romeo, the country’s top official, is running the process and Burnham himself has led the talks.
Alongside him have been his chief of staff (former cabinet minister and old flatmate James Purnell) and Lou Haigh, the MP who has been critical to his campaign and served in Starmer’s cabinet.
The focus so far as been on devolution, the grisly state of the country’s books and the security threats the UK faces. And there’ll be more talks in the coming week.
For all the vital high-level talk about plans and policy, there are also the basic practicalities of the preparation for the big move-in day, when everything official changes.
One former No 10 staffer recalls arriving early in the morning, being “shuffled through weird corridors, taken into a room, choosing logins and signing our lives away”.
How will Team Burnham choreograph the moment where he walks up to the lectern to address the country?
Keir Starmer’s team agonised over whether to bring crowds of supporters into Downing Street to wave and cheer his arrival, worried “it would look too gauche to have a celebration”.
But in the end, they did plump for an image they hoped would be “strong and patriotic”, according to one of them, with Union Jack brollies on hand in case it poured, and supporters waving flags.
It will be Burnham’s first official introduction to the country as prime minister, an image that will be seen by millions, and a speech that will be quoted again and again.
