Andy Burnham Takes Charge, Vows to End Years of UK Political Turmoil
20 July 2026 7:25 PM IST20 July 2026 7:25 PM IST
"I will soon go through that door behind me and issue my first instruction: to end rough sleeping in our country," he said.
Labour Party leader Andy Burnham talks to staff during a visit to The Passage Homeless Charity in London early on July 20, 2026, just hours before taking the role as the country's new prime minister. (Photo by Christopher Furlong / POOL / AFP)
London: Andy Burnham, newly elected leader of the Labour Party, on Monday took charge as the UK's new Prime Minister.
In his inaugural speech at 10 Downing Street, Burnham said he will make politics more about problem-solving and ensure his appointment is a "circuit breaker" moment for the country.
The 56-year-old leader of the Labour Party broke from prime ministerial tradition by choosing to address the nation from his new headquarters without the customary podium used by most of his predecessors.
"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 in his first address as PM.
Accompanied by his wife Marie-France van Heel and surrounded by several party colleagues expected to be appointed among his close aides, Burnham pledged a collaborative approach and singled out "ending rough sleeping" among his priorities by building more homes.
"We will help people to live well, building a more preventative state, investing in people's success, rather than paying for people's failure; and that work starts now," said Burnham.
"I will soon go through that door behind me and issue my first instruction: to end rough sleeping in our country," he said.
Burnham took formal charge as Britain's new PM after his audience with King Charles III, who invited the former mayor of Greater Manchester to form a new government following the resignation of Keir Starmer moments earlier to mark the formal handover of power.
"His Majesty received in audience the Rt. Hon. Andrew Burnham MP and requested him to form a new administration," a Buckingham Palace statement said.
Burnham "kissed hands upon his appointment as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury", the palace said – a reference to the symbolic royal tradition that forms part of Britain's constitutional monarchy.
Elected Labour leader unopposed last week, Burnham will now get to work instantly as PM by announcing his picks for Cabinet.
Earlier, Starmer delivered his final address from 10 Downing Street as Britain's Prime Minister before making his way to meet the King to formally tender his resignation. "My work is done," he said.
The 63-year-old Labour MP, who announced his decision to step down last month, said he was "passing the baton" to Burnham, who had his "full support".
"I go with good grace, I go with a smile and I go proud of everything that we have achieved," said Starmer.
His Cabinet colleagues and officials lined up to applaud his departure from Downing Street after two years, having won a landslide election for Labour in the July 2024 general election.
( Source : PTI )
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