Andy Burnham was officially ‘coronated’ as Labour leader today – and immediately lurched Left, blaming Margaret Thatcher and capitalism for the country’s problems.
The Makerfield MP has been unveiled as the winner of the bizarre one-candidate contest at an event at the TUC headquarters in London.
Watched by fawning would-be Cabinet ministers, Mr Burnham – who ditched his trademark black T-shirt for a suit and tie – harked back to a time before the ‘wrong turns’ of the 1980s.
He pledged nationalisations and more public control, telling activists he would stop wearing ‘Tory clothes’ and return to ‘authentic Labour’ to ‘eradicate’ Reform.
Mr Burnham said the movement was ‘forged in the steelworks’ and dockyards, committing to end ‘Neoliberalism’ – a vague term often used on the Left to denounce capitalism.
Despite mounting a concerted effort to kick Keir Starmer out, Mr Burnham enthusiastically praised his absent predecessor’s ‘service to our party and our country’.
However, Mr Burnham – who will officially replace Sir Keir as PM on Monday – still did not take any questions from the media.
Instead he has been posting soft-soap social media clips, including him chatting about how he likes his tea, whether he wears socks with sandals, and his disapproval of Yorkshire puddings with Christmas dinner.
Mr Burnham has become Labour leader after a token process that saw him nominated by nearly 95 per cent of MPs, weeks after he returned to the Commons in a by-election.
He did not stand on Labour’s manifesto in 2024 and the 25,000 voters who backed him in Makerfield represent just 0.05 per cent of the British electorate.
One of the few backbenchers who did not endorse him, Graham Stringer, said he did not want to sign a ‘blank cheque’ – warning the former Greater Manchester Mayor needs to be more up front about his intentions.
On another dramatic day in UK politics:
- Mr Burnham hinted he will expend ‘quite a lot of political capital’ on social care reforms – after previously backing a ‘death tax’ charge on inheritance;
- Close ally Steve Rotheram, the Liverpool Metro Mayor, has given another strong hint at a ‘wealth tax’, arguing that it should be targeted at raising spending for a ‘sector or area’;
- Sir Keir will not attend his successor’s official confirmation, after spending yesterday on a farewell visit to Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv;
- Removal vans have been seen outside Downing Street as preparations for the handover continue;
- Wes Streeting has denied a bizarre claim that he was spotted in tears near Mr Burnham’s Parliamentary office.
Andy Burnham ditched his trademark black t-shirt for a suit and tie at the Labour leader event today
Mr Burnham entered accompanied by Shabana Mahmood in her capacity as chair of Labour’s ruling NEC, and deputy leader Lucy Powell
The Makerfield MP was unveiled as the winner of the bizarre one-candidate contest at an event in London, watched by fawning would-be Cabinet ministers
Ms Powell introduced Mr Burnham, admitting the contest was not a ‘nailbiter’
Mr Burnham will say ‘political power was centralised and economic power privatised’ during Thatcher’s time as premier
Removal vans have been seen outside Downing Street as preparations for the handover continue
Staff were packing away boxes with Sir Keir and his family set to move out shortly
In his address this lunchtime he promised to be ‘unashamedly Labour in our priorities and in the decisions we take’.
He said his government will have the ‘courage to fix the big things that politics has neglected’ and the ‘conviction to argue for our plans’.
Mr Burnham insisted Britain took ‘a series of wrong turns in the 1980s’ when ‘political power was centralised and economic power privatised’.
Making the economy work for people across the UK will require ‘a new path to the one we’ve been on for the last 40 years’, he said.
‘This country does not work for working class communities like the city of my birth,’ he said.
‘In fact, it turned its back on them. Political power was used viciously against them to protect vested interests.
‘Economic power cruelly stripped with the deindustrialisation of the 1980s, as it was against so many places up and down the land.’
He added: ‘Change starts with honesty. We must recognise that this generation of politicians, myself included, have failed to challenge a political culture and an economic model that simply doesn’t work well enough for ordinary people.’
Mr Burnham said he would not try to ‘out-Green the Greens’ or shift Right to head off the threat from Reform, but instead insisted the party could be ‘authentically Labour’.
Launching an attack on ‘the Right’, he said: ‘I want people to understand the thinking behind the political direction I set, so people can see the decisions we take and the reasons why. I am clear: Britain took a series of wrong turns in the 1980s. Political power was centralised, and economic power was privatised.
‘The country surrendered control of the essentials – housing, water, energy, transport – and left people exposed to higher costs. That, in turn, led to the concentration of more wealth and power in the hands of fewer people and fewer places. Large parts of Britain were deindustrialised without the power to set new ambitions for themselves.’
He added: ‘Slowly, at times imperceptibly, over four decades, political and economic power drained away out of our communities in every region and nation of the UK.
‘If local places don’t control something as basic as a bus service, how can they connect people to opportunity and turn things around?
‘If the sell-off of council homes leaves the country chasing rents in the private rented sector through the benefits system and paying for temporary accommodation for thousands of families, as they have to do here in London and elsewhere across the country, how then will we find the money to invest in prevention and improve people’s lives? The truth is, we can’t.’
He questioned how the country could control inflation, public spending and the rest of the economy if there was not public control over the cost of the essentials, adding: ‘The Right used the phrase ‘take back control’, but they are the ones who gave it away in the first place.’
Despite returning at the by-election expressly to oust Sir Keir, Mr Burnham insisted ‘factionalism has bedevilled us’ and ‘today we move beyond it’.
He said: ‘I have supported all our Labour leaders in my lifetime because I believe a united Labour Party and Labour movement is the best hope for our country.’
Teeing up his confirmation earlier, Mr Burnham posted on X that he will ‘put power back where it belongs’.
‘The next few days are about more than changing who governs Britain. They’re about changing how Britain is governed,’ he wrote.
Mr Burnham was backed by 369 of the party’s 403 MPs, far surpassing the 81 needed, and secured the support of eight of the 11 unions affiliated with the party.
He steps into the job at a time when his party has trailed Reform UK in opinion polls for nearly 18 months and Labour will be hoping his presence will spark a bounce and turn around its fortunes.
Sir Keir has said he would have won the next general election if he had not been ousted, but is ‘proud to hand over the party in good shape’ to his successor.
But there is no clarity about Mr Burnham’s policies, or how they might differ from Sir Keir’s agenda.
Business and unions have been alarmed at the idea of ‘Red’ Ed Miliband being made Chancellor – a prospect that seems to have receded.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is now being tipped for the crucial job.
Business and unions have been alarmed at the idea of ‘Red’ Ed Miliband being made Chancellor – a prospect that seems to have receded
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is now being tipped for the crucial No11 job
Mr Burnham has spoken about how he wants to push powers to local leaders outside Westminster as part of his devolution agenda and to create a ‘No 10 North’ outpost of Downing Street based in Manchester.
He has said he will stick to Rachel Reeves’ fiscal rules as well as manifesto pledges not to raise income tax, VAT or national insurance, but declined to rule out a wealth tax in an interview this week.
The Liberal Democrats have urged him to overhaul the water industry in his first weeks as prime minister and immediately place Thames Water into a special administration regime.
Mr Burnham has drafted in Matthew McGregor, who has worked on elections in the UK and abroad and is currently chief executive of campaign group 38 Degrees, as his No 10 director of political strategy.
