The populist baton is free - if Labour want to pick it up

Having delicately carried the proverbial vase across the winning post of the leadership election, Liz Truss emerged from the rarefied high-altitude serenity of a one-horse race back into the real meat and drink of her first Prime Minister’s Questions.

It is, for better or for worse, the centrepiece of the political week – a political event with conflict and vitriol priced in from the start.

For a new Prime Minister who - by her own admission - has had issues with her presentation, it could have been an accident waiting to happen.

Yet in the course of her very first answer, it seems, the die for her premiership was cast.

It was, to use the jargon, a target-rich moment for Keir Starmer.

The country faces crises whichever way you look. From energy bills which for so many will be simply unpayable, to an NHS creaking at the seams.

From industrial action in virtually every sector to the political union of the UK - the very fabric of the country - under its greatest strain in centuries.

There were, to use one final piece of jargon, open goals galore for the Labour leader.

It is not the first time in his tenure - Johnsonian scandals saw to that. Yet Johnson’s obfuscation, his determination to wheel out his greatest hits of vaccines, arms to Ukraine and Brexit no matter what question he was asked, more often than not left the blows feeling glancing, absorbed in a cloud of blonde bluff.

For Keir now comes a new challenge - a Prime Minister who answers questions.

With what could yet come to be seen as Trussian bluntness, this became apparent in her first answer to him.

When asked whether she approved of a windfall tax, she answered with a clarity unthinkable a few months ago: “I am against a windfall tax. I believe it is the wrong thing.”

The significance of this lies not only in its delivery, which in itself provides a challenge to Labour, but primarily in its substance.

Windfall taxes are popular. Time and again in opinion polls, they have been shown to be something the public likes.

Johnson, ever the populist, saw the potential of yet another U-turn on the subject.

He did this a lot – ‘do whatever is most popular on the day’ was the order of the hour, as policy changed direction like a flag in the breeze.

For Labour, the course was safe - attempt to maintain the position of an unwavering party of sensible continuity rather than the frantic bluster opposite them

What Liz Truss did in that first answer was set out quite clearly that she believes her course would now be the steadier of the two. She cast herself immediately as the woman of conviction.

The public will know what she’s about. Taxes are bad. Like her idol Margaret Thatcher, she has her ideology and she plans to stick to it.

In an election, this is more straightforward to sell than populism. Of course, whether or not the electorate buy what she’s about - or where her policies leave the country - is another matter entirely.

The populist baton is therefore firmly in Labour’s court. It either picks it up and runs with it, or it attempts to create a narrative as clear as Truss’.

Should Labour take that political opportunity – or as some would see it fall for that political trap – the shift in British political landscape ushered in by one small question will have been tectonic.