Andy Burnham became the United Kingdom’s prime minister on Monday after replacing Keir Starmer as Labour Party leader, promising a new economic model and a more collaborative style of politics. Burnham, 56, is the country’s seventh prime minister since 2016.
In his first speech outside 10 Downing Street after being appointed by King Charles III, Andy Burnham said Britain needed to “regain our stability once again” and make politics “work better,” arguing the country required a break from years of upheaval.
“We will make this moment a circuit breaker for Britain, bringing forward the biggest changes in the last 40 years, a new political model, and a new economic model,” Burnham said.
Burnham said Britain took “wrong turns” in the 1980s, arguing that political power became more centralized, economic power was privatized, and parts of the country were deindustrialized.
He also pledged to put “life’s essentials” under stronger public control to make them more affordable, and has said he wants greater public control over water and electricity as well as more funding for affordable housing as part of an effort to ease cost-of-living pressures.
Burnham’s path to the premiership accelerated after he returned to Parliament last month and then secured Labour’s leadership last week, replacing Starmer without a general election.
In the United States, President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Burnham had stated he would “open” the North Sea to oil drilling, citing reports and praising the prospect. Burnham has previously criticized Trump, including remarks after the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot, when he said British politicians who supported Trump should be “ashamed.”
