LONDON — Andy Burnham, the longtime mayor of Greater Manchester, Britain’s second-largest urban area, became Britain’s sixth prime minister in a decade Monday, taking charge of a Labour government that won power in a landslide two years ago but quickly lost the country’s confidence amid lingering economic malaise.
Burnham, in brief remarks before entering 10 Downing Street to begin his official duties, promised to create a “circuit breaker” moment in the cycle of failure and cynicism that have plagued British politics and government for the past decade.
“I am acutely conscious that I am the sixth person in the last 10 years to walk up this street,” Burnham said. “We have not been good enough.”
Burnham replaces Keir Starmer, the beleaguered premier who posted some of the lowest approval ratings recorded for a British leader, in the hopes that a new face can rekindle enthusiasm — or at least buy some patience — for the Labour government before it must face voters in the next general election in 2029.
Buckingham Palace confirmed that King Charles III had overseen the transfer of power shortly after noon Monday.
“His Majesty received in audience the Rt. Hon. Andrew Burnham MP and requested him to form a new Administration,” the palace said in a statement. “The Rt. Hon Andrew Burnham MP accepted The King’s offer and kissed hands upon his appointment as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.”
Burnham spoke by phone with President Donald Trump shortly after entering office Monday, a White House official confirmed, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private call between leaders. Neither office released details of the conversation.
Trump and Burnham have not met in person, and political observers have speculated that Burnham may shift from Starmer’s strategy of using flattery and difference to manage the mercurial president.
The handover of power in London follows a sequence Britain has rehearsed repeatedly as it cycled through prime ministers every few years, or even months. Starmer delivered a farewell statement outside 10 Downing Street, the office and residence of the prime minister, then traveled the mile to Buckingham Palace where officials confirmed he submitted his resignation to Charles.
“My work is done,” Starmer told a crowd of supporters, who cheered as he claimed successes for his government in reducing immigration flows and wait times for national health appointments, boosting the economy, and launching a military rebuild, all initiatives that failed to lift his popularity.
“As I now pass the baton to Andy Burnham, I wish him every success,” Starmer said. “He has my full support.”
Burnham, along with wife Marie-France van Heel, followed Starmer to the palace, where the king invited him to form a new government. He became prime minister the moment he accepted and is the third premier Charles has congratulated in less than four years on the throne.
There was no inauguration or new election. In Britain’s parliamentary system, voters elect a party, not a prime minister, and the party holding a majority in the House of Commons chooses its leader, who, in turn, leads the nation.
The Burnhams, tracked by a news helicopter, then rode in an official motorcade back to Downing Street, their new home and his office.
In his remarks, Burnham laid out plans to launch a 10-year program to refashion economics and politics that would include shifting more governing power from the capital to cities and regions across the country. Burnham said he intended to work regularly from Manchester, where he was mayor for nine years until being elected to Parliament in June, as part of his initiative to devolve power from the government halls of central London.
Burnham’s remarks Monday capped his lightning-fast rise from big-city mayor to prime minister, and they focused tightly on improving the economic lots of citizens who feel left behind — a theme familiar from his recent campaigning.
More immediately, he promised to announce on Tuesday, his first full day in office, specific new measures to help Britons weather a cost-of-living crisis. And he declared that his first official instruction to his team would be to begin work toward ending “rough sleeping” — sleeping in doorways and parks because of homelessness — throughout the U.K.
Burnham also made clear that he was ready to break with the policies of Conservative — and some Labour — leaders going back decades.
“In the 1980s, Britain took some wrong turns,” Burnham said. “Political power was centralized, economic power privatized, large parts of the country deindustrialized — and they still haven’t recovered.”
However Burnham fares with the public, he comes to power with deep support within his party.
Every other prospective replacement for Starmer stepped aside after Burnham was elected to a parliamentary seat in June, making him eligible to become prime minister. He was officially declared the Labour Party leader Friday, with nominations from 379 of Labour’s 403 members of Parliament.
“We’re going to give them hope back,” Burnham said at a special party conference in London. He called his election “the most significant change moment in our politics for 40 years” and promised “good growth in every post code.”
Burnham enters the prime minister’s office promising to dilute the power concentrated within 10 Downing Street by devolving more authority to local leaders.
He has spent recent weeks traveling to Cardiff and other cities and said he will work part of each week at a satellite office in Manchester, the city he led as mayor for nine years.
“We will take power back from Westminster and Whitehall and give it to the place you live,” Burnham said Friday.
Burnham is still selecting his cabinet, aides said, but reportedly has settled on some key team members.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is expected to be named chancellor of the Exchequer, the government’s top economic post. Her selection over Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, an early favorite, followed pressure from business groups and trade unions and was seen in the party as reassurance to investors wary of a leftward turn.
Miliband is now expected to be offered the job of foreign secretary. Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister, has been linked to the health department. The full cabinet is due to meet Tuesday.
Burnham struck a sober note Monday, saying Britain must be honest about the problems it faces and calling the moment one for “reflection and resolution.”
The longtime mayor, who built a reputation for populist appeal, has been successful in the past at winning support from disaffected voters. In his recent parliamentary race, pollsters said he won back many who had gravitated toward Reform UK, the anti-immigration party co-founded by Nigel Farage.
Farage has been embroiled in allegations of financial impropriety and resigned his seat in Parliament aiming to run again and win a vote of confidence from constituents. Instead, he has been left campaigning against a lone competitor who wears a trash can on his head.
Farage was an architect of Brexit, Britain’s departure from the European Union in 2016, which was followed by years of economic decline and contributed to the collapse of the Conservative Party in the 2024 election, after 14 years of Tory control. Some voters have urged rejoining the E.U., but such a move remains extremely unlikely.
Burnham has called Brexit “damaging” but also promised not to “rerun” the leave-versus-remain debate that bedeviled the country for years, saying, “Britain will be stuck in a permanent rut if we’re just constantly arguing.”
European Union Commission President Ursula Van der Leyden told Burnham on Monday in a post on social media that she was looking forward to working with him “to strengthen the EU-UK partnership.”
Burnham says his pledge to redistribute power from London is part of spurring economic growth. He has said he will bring more utilities and services that had been privatized under public control, starting with the debt-laden Thames Water, the country’s largest water and sewer utility.
He has also committed to maintaining strict borrowing rules set by the outgoing chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and to honor Labour’s promise not to raise three key taxes, constraints that will leave him little room to spend on his ambitious agenda.
Burnham is trying to balance a left-leaning agenda with the concerns of investors and the need to generate economic growth. He has signaled a willingness to allow more oil and gas extraction from existing concessions in the North Sea, though he has objected in the past to expanding the number of concessions.
Trump previously had said little about Burnham beyond that he had heard he was the “very liberal” mayor of “a town.” But Trump seized on that opening, congratulating him on Truth Social on Saturday night for agreeing to open up North Sea oil “all the way” and writing that the people of Aberdeen were “dancing in the streets” — an exaggeration of what Burnham had actually indicated.
Michael Birnbaum in Washington contributed to this report.
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