UK: Burnham elected new Labour Party leader

Andy Burnham was on Friday confirmed as the newly elected leader of the UK’s governing Labour Party, becoming the prime minister-designate to take charge at 10 Downing Street next week.

The 56-year-old member of Parliament for Makerfield in northern England, on track to become Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade, admitted that it was the “last chance” for Labour to deliver the change promised at the last general election in July 2024.

“We are going to give people hope back,” said Burnham in his first speech as party leader.

“I am ready to lead, building on the foundations laid by Keir Starmer,” he said, thanking the outgoing leader for his “service to the country”. Burnham, the sole candidate in the leadership race since Starmer announced his resignation last month, vowed to “set Britain on a new path” with a less toxic political climate and a greater shift away from centralised power at Westminster in London.

“I will be a leader for every region and nation in this great country, and this party will be unashamedly Labour in our priorities and in the decisions we take,” he said.

“We want to give your area more power to build the council and social homes that you desperately need, more power to improve your high street, backing local businesses such as the pubs and the shops that bring them to life... more power to re-industrialise,” said in the PM-in-waiting.

In an attempt to highlight a shift in leadership priorities, the former mayor of Greater Manchester took aim at the Opposition Tories’ “sweeping privatisation agenda” which began under former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, as he indicated plans for greater nationalisation.

“Britain took a series of wrong turns in the 1980s. Political power was centralised and economic power was privatised,” he noted.