![\"UK](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Burnham.jpg\")
Britain\u2019s King Charles III, shakes hands with Britain\u2019s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, during an audience at Buckingham Palace, London on July 20, 2026 (Photo by Aaron Chown \/ POOL \/ AFP)<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham took power Monday promising a 10-year plan to ease cost-of-living pressures and restore political stability, signalling a leftward tilt for his ruling Labour party.<\/p>\n
Burnham, 56, pledged to re-industrialise Britain and end sleeping rough on the streets after he met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace to become the head of government after Keir Starmer stepped down.<\/p>\n
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Britain\u2019s King Charles III, shakes hands with Britain\u2019s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, during an audience at Buckingham Palace, London on July 20, 2026 (Photo by Aaron Chown \/ POOL \/ AFP)<\/p>\n
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Accompanied by his wife Marie-France van Heel, Burnham arrived at Downing Street to resounding applause from supporters and acknowledged he was the country\u2019s seventh prime minister since the start of 2016.<\/p>\n
Britain needed to show the world it could \u201cregain stability\u201d, he said, as he vowed to create \u201ca new political model\u201d and \u201cbuild a new economy\u201d.<\/p>\n
Shortly after walking through the famous black door of No. 10, Burnham had a phone call with US President Donald Trump, a UK government official and White House official confirmed on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Burnham told broadcasters he would offer reassurance to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky later Monday that \u201cI will be with him 100 per cent\u201d.<\/p>\n
In his brief speech outside Downing Street, the new Labour leader said he would \u201cbring forward a new plan for Britain, a 10-year plan,\u201d without giving specifics.<\/p>\n
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![\"Andy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Andy-Burnham-3.jpg\")
Britain\u2019s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham gives his first speech in front of 10 Downing Street in central London on July 20, 2026, after being asked by the King to form the next government. (Photo by Henry NICHOLLS \/ AFP)<\/p>\n
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Starmer had similarly talked of his intention to lead a \u201cdecade of national renewal\u201d before Labour MPs ditched him last month in favour of Burnham, who only returned to parliament four weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Naming short-term goals, Burnham promised to \u201cgive people some breathing space now, some help with the cost of living,\u201d which he said he would start to announce on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
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![\"Starmer\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/KEIR-STARMER.jpg\")
Britain\u2019s outgoing prime minister Keir Starmer makes a statement in front of 10 Downing Street in central London on July 20, 2026, before formally tendering his resignation to the king. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS \/ AFP)<\/p>\n
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He also said his first instruction would be a pledge to \u201cend rough sleeping,\u201d a measure he attempted to implement as a regional mayor in northern England, although it was not fully successful.<\/p>\n
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![\"Andy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Andy-Burnham-and-wife.jpg\")
Britain\u2019s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham and his wife Marie-France van Heel pose on the steps of 10 Downing Street in central London on July 20, 2026, after being asked by the king to form the next government. (Photo by Henry NICHOLLS \/ AFP)<\/p>\n
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Other announcements included a vague promise to re-industrialise Britain through public procurement and to build more public housing.<\/p>\n
He repeated his belief that \u201cin the 1980s Britain took some wrong turns,\u201d as he pledged to decentralise power away from Westminster and \u201cput life\u2019s essentials back under stronger public control to make them affordable\u201d.<\/p>\n
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\u2018Stronger, Fairer\u2019<\/p>\n
Starmer departed Downing Street earlier, insisting his short time in office had made Britain a better place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am confident that Britain is now stronger and fairer than it was two years ago,\u201d he said in his farewell speech.<\/p>\n
Burnham will face an in-tray overflowing with challenges with little time to make his mark with a nationwide election due in 2029.<\/p>\n
Rachel Reeves announced she was departing as finance minister, while deputy PM David Lammy said he was also leaving government.<\/p>\n
The former mayor of Greater Manchester, nicknamed the \u201cKing of the North,\u201d has been parachuted in by the Labour Party after Starmer resigned on June 22, with MPs viewing him as the party\u2019s best chance of reining in Nigel Farage\u2019s anti-immigration Reform UK party.<\/p>\n
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\u2018Bigger, Bolder\u2019<\/p>\n
Among Burnham\u2019s most urgent challenges will be a tepid economy, high government borrowing costs, a ballooning welfare bill and irregular migrants arriving in small boats that have fuelled support for Reform.<\/p>\n
Unpredictable energy prices due to the US-Iran war and volatile relations with the United States under Trump also threaten to buffet his premiership.<\/p>\n
Starmer led Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024 after 14 years of Conservative rule, but his premiership became characterised by a string of scandals, missteps and policy U-turns.<\/p>\n
Burnham has little room to manoeuvre amid sluggish economic growth, high public debt and strict financial rules requiring him to balance government spending against tax revenue.<\/p>\n
Burnham was an MP between 2001 and 2017, serving as a minister in the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.<\/p>\n
But Burnham\u2019s swift \u201ccoronation\u201d as Labour leader without a contest, and now prime minister by virtue of Labour\u2019s huge parliamentary majority, has raised questions about how he will achieve his aims.<\/p>\n
He is also facing calls from opposition politicians to call a snap election.<\/p>\n
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said she looked forward to working with Burnham \u201cto strengthen the EU-UK partnership,\u201d and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz invited him to visit Berlin to mark \u201cthe deep bond between us\u201d.<\/p>\n
French President Emmanuel Macron also sent congratulations, and urged him to \u201cgive new momentum to the partnership between the United Kingdom and the European Union\u201d.<\/p>\n
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AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham took power Monday promising a 10-year plan to ease cost-of-living pressures…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[7786,13,174,1049,14632],"class_list":["post-86713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-andy-burnham","tag-britain","tag-downing-street","tag-king-charles-iii","tag-uk-prime-minister"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116953441123475279","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}