As I make my way toward Portcullis House, I spot three armed guards standing outside a revolving door that isn’t revolving. There’s a door to the left and I walk through it, unloading my bag and everything in my pockets onto a plastic tray before walking through a security gate.

In complete contrast to everything happening around me, looking pretty much like a scene from the ‘The Thick of It’, a man walks to the final security door, beaming. His name is Andy Burnham and he’s standing as a candidate for the Labour Leadership.

We shook hands, we greeted each other and instead of going into a stuffy office, he took me to a nearby table outside a cafe, where his press secretary and aides were sitting. His hair was brushed to the side, he was clean shaven and he seemed relaxed, if not understandably tired. After a few minutes of light conversation, it turned to politics and I asked him a pretty unusual question. ‘I’ve heard a lot of people asking how are you are different from the other candidates but what I want to know is what strengths do you all have in common?’ I’m not sure if he expected it but he replied quickly. ‘Experience’. It struck me as obvious but he went on and said that they are ‘all people motivated from the same kind of ideas and the society [they] want to see’.

So I sat there and wondered what could be different. To me, it was pretty clear that it was his personality. There was no doubt that Andy Burnham was a decent person. Perhaps he was too nice to be a leader. In 2009, the swine flu pandemic hit the country and although it worked out as less dangerous than first thought, it was probably due to the man in ‘the hot seat’ that it turned out that way. He has had to make some tough decisions in the post he’s held but later I found myself thinking about whether that could transfer into huge decisions that a Prime Minister has to face on a day to basis.

On the train over to Westminster, thick, moving globules of flesh were pasted everywhere and George Osborne’s face was on them, delivering a budget he himself seemed terrified of. Was it the same for Andy Burnham? If I’m honest, when I asked how the budget affected him personally, he seemed to waver. He wasn’t entirely sure about how it did but I suppose he was just finding his feet because he took real issue with what they were doing to the schools, especially considering he is a father to three children. He ‘went to secondary school under the Conservatives and it wasn’t a particularly enjoyable experience. And [he's] worried now that going to secondary schools under the Tories and schools are going to be very badly hit by this budget.’

So we speak fluidly for a while and then I think about what he says about his children before I ask another question. It’s got to be hard for both sides of a family to be away from one another for such a long period of time. I thought it’d be better to put down exactly what he said to that.

‘Yes. In a word, yeah. That’s the hardest side of my job. Um.. You know, when I pick up the phone to my kids at seven o’ clock.. You know, it’s just.. quite hard. And my son’s ten, you know, he really misses me now.. And um.. particularly with the World Cup on now as well, you know.. you kind of.. want to watch it together and um.. You know, that all is quite hard actually and if I go further up, it’ll get harder as well. I am quite disciplined about making sure that I do get home and I do have family time. Politics.. Politics and family life are not a good mix. It’s always a cliché that minister resigns to spend more time with him family but.. There is actually something in that. You’re in politics and living in Westminster can often keep you away from you family for long, long days on end.’

I wasn’t sure on what to ask after that. I thought about it for a while and then considered that I was going to be voting, come the next election. So I asked, without any inhibition or tactic, why I should vote for Labour if the coalition do a fine job. His answer, admittedly, wasn’t immediate but it was pretty good when it came. The question for him was really ‘IF they’ve done a good job’. Already, he said, Labour is proving ‘to be a more effective opposition’ but that’s not to say that they should rest on their laurels and, in a responsible air, Andy Burnham admits it. ‘So Labour needs to be careful that it doesn’t just assume that it’s all going to fall apart – it might not… we need to look like.. Not like we’re in denial, you know, kind of like, opposing everything and so.. Labour’s got to be quite careful to pick its fights. So, where things are going too far or, you know, where things are unacceptable, then speaking up for that but not opposing everything.’ It was a good answer and I liked the way we finished up.

Andy Burnham, a name not very well known to me beforehand, for me, had demonstrated and answered that perpetual question asked continually and monotonously over and over again by jouranlists and reporters desperate for a grilling. ‘How are you different from the other candidates?’

We shook hands, we said goodbye to each other and as I went outside, I glanced sideways to three armed guards standing outside a revolving door that wasn’t revolving.