UK PM Burnham faces lawmakers for first time since taking office

Prime Minister Andy Burnham will face lawmakers in the House of Commons on Tuesday for the first time since becoming UK leader six weeks ago, with wars in Europe and the Middle East weighing on his promise to kick-start the economy and ease the cost of living.

Since taking office on July 20, Burnham has travelled around the country promising to deliver renewed national optimism after the downbeat two-year tenure of predecessor Keir Starmer.

Burnham has announced a series of modest money-saving measures aimed at giving “breathing space” to people and businesses, including a tax cut on domestic energy bills and a lowering of levies on pubs and nightclubs. But neither opponents nor his own Labour Party legislators have been able to grill him on the details of pledges made against the tough backdrop of mounting security challenges and economic pressure from the Iran war. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who shook up her top team on Monday by appointing new economy and foreign affairs spokespeople, finally gets a chance to grill Burnham on Tuesday when Parliament returns from its summer break.

Burnham, a former lawmaker who was elected to Parliament in June after almost a decade away as mayor of Greater Manchester, is set to make a statement in the House of Commons setting out his vision of a more active but less centralized state. The prime minister’s office said that Burnham will set out “a clear plan for how we turn things round.”