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Burnham becomes PM
Andy Burnham officially became the United Kingdom’s prime minister on Monday after King Charles III asked him to form a government at Buckingham Palace, following Keir Starmer’s resignation.
“Andy Burnham has needed two decades, two defeats in internal elections and a detour through Manchester to reach Downing Street”
The Franceinfo report said Burnham, the 56-year-old former mayor of Greater Manchester, was received at midday by the sovereign before heading to 10 Downing Street, and it described him as Labour leader since Friday after securing support of about 95% of Labour MPs.
NBC News said Burnham was appointed unchallenged after Keir Starmer agreed to step down last month, and it described Burnham as the “King of the North” becoming Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade.
In his first speech as prime minister outside No. 10 Downing St., Burnham vowed a “circuit breaker for Britain” and said he would announce a “10-year plan” later this year, while also promising “some help with the cost of living” and an instruction to “end rough sleeping in our country.”
Promises and appointments
The BBC said Burnham replaced Sir Keir Starmer as UK prime minister after becoming Labour leader last week, and it described him as the country’s fourth prime minister in five years and the seventh since 2016.
In that first speech in Downing Street, Burnham announced he would "end rough sleeping in our country" and a No 10 press release promised an extra £340m for the task over the next five years from within the housing department budget.
The BBC also said Burnham promised a new 10-year plan for Britain to be unveiled later this year and to build a new economy by putting "life's essentials back under public control," while he argued people needed "breathing space now" for cost-of-living announcements starting on Tuesday.
NBC News reported Burnham reappointed Shabana Mahmood as interior minister and moved several members of Starmer’s team out of their roles, while naming Ed Miliband as foreign minister and John Healey as finance minister.
The BBC added that Burnham did not use a lectern and stressed that the UK badly needed to regain stability, saying politicians must "make politics work better" and "raise our game and rise to the new challenge."
International calls and stakes
AP said Burnham took the final steps on Monday to succeed Keir Starmer and become Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade, with the constitutional sequence ending when Charles asked him to form a government at Buckingham Palace.
AP reported that Burnham told reporters he “would not want to leave office” without improving Britain’s patchy access to social care for those who need it because of age, illness or disability, and it quoted him saying the status who is “not defensible.”
CNBC said Burnham told supporters in his first speech that “We will make this moment a circuit breaker for Britain,” and it added that he promised to build a new economy where “life's essentials” would be under stronger public control and that he would reindustrialize Britain using public procurement.
The same CNBC report said President Donald Trump welcomed Burnham’s plan to fast-track oil and gas exploration in already-licensed fields in the North Sea, and it quoted Trump calling North Sea oil “invaluable” and warning the U.K. was a “Poverty Stricken Disaster.”
El Mundo said Burnham told the world Britain needs to demonstrate it can recover stability again, and it quoted him saying “Gran Bretaña necesita demostrar al mundo que es capaz de recuperar la estabilidad de nuevo.”
