Andy Burnham vowed Friday to restore “hope” to the British people as he officially became the ruling Labour Party’s new leader and the incoming UK prime minister.
Nicknamed the “King of the North” for a nine-year spell as Manchester mayor, Burnham pledged to work to improve living standards in every region of the United Kingdom.
“People and places … have been waiting too long for politics to let them hope again … We’re going to give them hope back,” he promised at a special party conference.
“I am for us, for all of us,” Burnham told cheering delegates.
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The 56-year-old takes over from Keir Starmer, who resigned last month after months of political turmoil, scandal and domestic policy missteps.
Centre-left Labour retains an overwhelming majority in parliament after the 2024 general election. As the leader of the largest party, he becomes the country’s prime minister without having to call new polls.
Burnham will enter Downing Street on Monday after meeting King Charles III, becoming the UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade.
It is only four weeks since Burnham sensationally returned as a member of parliament following a nine-year absence, determined to replace Starmer.
Labour MPs reckon he is their best chance of reining in Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant Reform UK party, tipped in the polls to win the next general election, expected in 2029.
Burnham’s flagship idea is devolving powers to cities and regions, including by setting up a “Number 10 North” office.
Hailing from the party’s so-called soft left, he favours more public control of services, such as water, and re-industrialisation.
“If we want an economy and a country that works for all people and places … then it requires a new path to the one we’ve been on for the last 40 years,” he said.
Burnham has pledged to boost the construction of public housing to try to resolve the homelessness crisis and pump resources into social care.
After facing no challengers, he becomes leader at his third attempt, following failed bids in 2010 and 2015.
Burnham was an MP between 2001 and 2017, serving as a minister in Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s governments.
He has since reinvented himself as a man of the people, melding a relaxed folksy style with slick social media videos.
Labour MPs see him as a better communicator than Starmer and hope he will take a more radical approach to reforming Britain’s battered public services.
“It feels like a fresh start. There’s reason to be hopeful,” Labour MP Richard Baker told AFP after Burnham’s speech.
New Leader, Old Problems
Starmer returned Labour to power after 14 years in opposition in July 2024 with a landslide victory over the Conservatives, who had churned through five prime ministers in the tumult unleashed by the 2016 Brexit referendum.
But his premiership quickly became characterised by domestic policy missteps and controversies, including his appointment of ex-Jeffrey Epstein associate Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington.
Disastrous local and regional election results in May heaped further pressure on Starmer, which became impossible to withstand after Burnham won a parliamentary by-election on June 18, allowing him to run for leader.
Burnham, regularly seen in his trademark dark T-shirt and casual jacket, secured the backing of 379 of Labour’s 403 MPs, with no one mustering the 81 nominations required to challenge him.
He will face the same unenviable challenges that beset Starmer: a tepid economy, high government borrowing costs, a ballooning welfare bill and irregular migrants arriving in small boats that have fuelled support for Reform.
Unpredictable energy prices due to the US-Iran war and a volatile American president in Donald Trump also threaten to buffet his premiership.
Burnham has vowed not to raise the country’s main taxes but will need to fill a £4.7-billion ($6.3-billion) gap over four years in the country’s defence investment plan.
“Most of what’s been said by Burnham and his supporters so far has been pretty vague,” politics professor Tony Travers told AFP.
“He’s going to have to come out with a visible plan and policies people understand … pretty quickly,” or he risks “losing momentum”, Travers added.
AFP
