Andy Burnham, nicknamed the ‘King of the North,’ became leader of Britain’s governing Labour Party on Friday, the final step before becoming its seventh prime minister in a decade on a pledge to thwart the rise of the populist Reform UK.
At a “special conference” on Friday, Burnham, who earned the regal moniker for his determination as mayor of Greater Manchester to defend the region’s interests, was elected after gaining overwhelming support from Labour lawmakers.
The event was little more than a formality before he replaces Keir Starmer as Britain’s leader on Monday, when the party will be eager to find out his cabinet team and learn more about his approach to government.
Burnham, 56, used his speech to press his message that his government will be “authentically Labour,” overseeing economic renewal, more public control, re-industrialization and putting power back in the hands of local communities.
“We’re going to give them hope back,” Burnham said “This is a proud moment you have given me and my family today, and an emotional one, but it is one for which I am ready.”
“We are united and we put the power that comes from that unity at the service of people and places who have been waiting too long for politics to let them hope again,” he told the room full of Labour lawmakers and party officials.
“And that’s what we’re going to do, everybody, we’re going to give them hope back.”
He also paid tribute to Keir Starmer, the man he will replace as British prime minister on Monday, when the party will be eager to find out his cabinet team and learn more about his approach to government.
“I haven’t made any decisions yet about who will be in that top team. But I will soon, and when I have, you will see it reflects all parts of our party, all communities,” Burnham said.
But there is still much to learn about how he will govern.
He has given one speech since returning to parliament last month after winning a parliamentary seat in Makerfield, the start of a four-week process to install him as prime minister and remove Starmer, whose unpopularity across Britain turned his lawmakers against him.
Centre-left Labour retains an overwhelming majority in parliament after the 2024 elections, so the leader of the largest party becomes the country’s prime minister, without new polls being held.
On Monday, he will become the UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade, with Labour MPs betting Burnham is the party’s best chance of reining in Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant Reform UK party, tipped in the polls to win the next general election, expected in 2029.
Nicknamed “King of the North” for winning three successive elections to the Greater Manchester mayoralty, Burnham’s flagship idea is devolving powers to other cities in a bid to fire up Britain’s economy, including by setting up a “Number 10 North” office.
He said the past four decades since “the 1980s have not been kind to the places that built our party, nor to the communities across the UK in rural and coastal areas. So we pledge today, to them, to be better.”
“If we want an economy and a country that works for all people and places … then it requires a new path to the one we’ve been on for the last 40 years,” he said.