Andy Burnham, nicknamed the “King of the North”, was elected 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.
Burnham, who earned the regal moniker for his determination as mayor of Greater Manchester to defend the region’s interests, told a special conference on Friday he was ready for power and would work to offer hope to people in “forgotten places everywhere”.
Warning that it was Labour’s last chance to turn its fortunes around, the 56-year-old promised to spread power away from Westminster, the heart of British politics, to the nation’s regions and preside over a united team to deliver the change the country was “crying out for”.
“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 a 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 prime minister on Monday, when the party will be eager to find out his cabinet team and learn more about his approach to government.
BURNHAM’S BIG ‘REBALANCING OF POWER’
Despite repeating his offer to hand power to regions and to be decidedly pro-business, there is still much to know about Burnham’s policy priorities.
Burnham said he had not yet decided on his top team of ministers but would make sure it “reflects all parts of our party, all communities”, listing five priorities, largely targeted at party unity and being a leader for all parts of Britain.
In his message, delivered after a contest in which he was unopposed, he did little to elaborate on the plans set out in the one speech he had given since returning to parliament last month after winning a seat in Makerfield, the start of a process to replace Starmer.
In it, he sketched out some of his domestic agenda, saying he wanted to oversee the “biggest rebalancing of power” to Britain’s regions — something he believes will reduce inequality and the anger felt by neglected communities who have increasingly flocked to Reform UK and, in some cases, to the leftist Green Party.
On Friday, he said Labour could fight the threat from both of those parties not by trying to “out-Green the Greens or out-Reform Reform” but instead being “boldly, confidently, authentically us — Labour”.
Veteran Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, whose Reform UK won seven seats at the last election, called Burnham’s speech “utterly vacuous” as he addressed “CPAC Great Britain”, a gathering of conservative politicians and activists.
Farage, who has resigned his own seat amid parliamentary investigations of his finances, and hopes winning it back will strengthen his position, said Burnham was coming into office “with absolutely no mandate of any kind at all”.
