Andy Burnham begins premiership, pledges to end UK instability

Andy Burnham became prime minister after meeting King Charles III at Buckingham Palace. He is the 59th prime minister of the United Kingdom, and Britain has now had seven prime ministers in a decade.

322 Labour MPs backed his leadership bid in an early nomination tally, rising to 349, and party rules also required trade union support. Burnham went from Greater Manchester mayor back into Parliament, then into the Labour leadership and Downing Street in about a month.

In his first appearance outside No 10, he promised more breathing room for government, said he would produce a new 10-year plan for Britain by the end of 2026 and made ending rough sleeping his first instruction as prime minister. Lower energy bills were also part of his early agenda. At his first cabinet meeting, Burnham told ministers the government would show how it was going to pay for its policies, warned that they had to be prepared to make difficult decisions and said the administration should operate as a “cost of living government.”

John Healey was moved into Number 11 as chancellor, and Burnham sacked a number of Keir Starmer’s allies from the cabinet on his first day in office. He also launched No 10 North in Manchester, presenting it as part of a shift of power away from Whitehall and Westminster and telling staff that the move north showed he was “rewiring the state.” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticized the new office, while Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell said Burnham would “radically rewrite the political and economic model for the country.”

He won the Greater Manchester mayoralty in 2016 with 63% of the vote and secured a third term in 2024 with 420,749 votes. A listening tour is planned for August during Parliament’s recess.