New British PM Burnham Makes First Speech

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Andy Burnham became Britain’s Prime Minister this morning and made his first public speech after accepting the King’s invitation to form a government.

In his speech outside 10 Downing Street, he said his government would be a “circuit breaker for Britain, bringing forward the biggest changes in the last 40 years.”

“A new political model and a new economic model. In the 1980s Britain took some wrong turns. Political power was centralised, economic power privatised, large parts of the country de-industrialised and they still haven’t recovered.

“Many feel as though they’re still in decline, and they don’t have the ability to turn things around. And that’s why we will change politics, to make it more collaborative, more about problem solving than point scoring.

“And we will take power out of here and carry it into every postcode in the land so that they can do more and in doing more, build a new economy where we put life’s essentials back under stronger public control to make them affordable to you again.”

Burnham also said he was “acutely conscious” that he is Britain’s seventh Prime Minister in the last ten years, adding that politicians “need to be better.”

“I am acutely conscious that I am the sixth person in the last ten years to walk up this street—the seventh prime minister since 2016—making this a moment for reflection and new resolution.

“It requires my generation of politicians to raise our game and rise to the new challenge. Britain needs to show the world that we can regain our stability once again, and that is our challenge to make politics work, to make it work better. I know people at home are fed up with politics.

“I hear you and I want to be honest with you—we have not been good enough and we need to be better.”

Burnham, who was mayor of Manchester, launched a leadership challenge against Keir Starmer after winning the Makerfield by-election and returning to the House of Commons as an MP.

Starmer, whose tenure as Prime Minister, despite winning a huge majority, was marked by indecision and deepening unpopularity, stood aside without a formal contest.

He faced widespread disapproval as Prime Minister, at home and abroad.

In YouGov poll not long before his resignation in June, just 18% thought he was doing a good job as Prime Minister, with 74% saying he was doing badly. His ratings declined consistently since he took office in July 2024.

He repeatedly clashed with President Trump, who described him as “not Winston Churchill” after his refusal to allow US planes to launch attacks on Iran from the joint US-UK airbase on Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean.

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