Andy Burnham announced as new Labour leader after unopposed contest

Andy Burnham has been confirmed as Labour’s new leader after commanding the support of all of the party’s unions and all but 24 of the party’s MPs.

Burnham, former Mayor of Greater Manchester and MP for Makerfield, was the only candidate in the leadership contest, sparked by the resignation of Keir Starmer last month.

Burnham received endorsements from 94 percent of the Parliamentary Labour Party, as well as all of the party’s 11 affiliated trade unions.

He becomes Labour’s 20th leader and will serve as the party’s eighth Prime Minister when he enters Downing Street on Monday (July 20).

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In his first speech as party leader at a special conference, Burnham set out a vision for a renewed Labour government focused on driving growth in every postcode and returning power to communities across the country.

He said that Britain “took a series of wrong turns in the 1980s” under Thatcher and that the country requires “a new path to the one we’ve been on for the last 40 years”.

Amid concern from some MPs that Burnham may be too focused on the North of England once in power, he committed to being a leader “for the North and the South, for Scotland, for Wales and for Northern Ireland – and for every town and every city in every nation and region of this great country”. He also announced his plans to be “out and about” across the country to speak to the public in August.

Burnham made five pledges to the party; to work relentlessly for “one Labour team”, to put “problem solving over point scoring”, adopt a policy direction that is “distinctively Labour”, to be a leader for all parts of the country, and to take power from Westminster and put it in the hands of local communities.

Ahead of the announcement, Deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell paid tribute to the outgoing leader Keir Starmer and said he “helped save the Labour Party”.

Emma Burnell, editor of LabourList, said: “This is a moment of hope for the Labour Party that a new leader will be able to turn around our showing in the polls and change the culture of the party.

“That hope does come with some trepidation. Andy has a big and bold vision. The Labour Party and the country will need to feel quite quickly that he is making progress towards delivering it. We can’t be unrealistic about how long that might take, but neither can we take our time in demonstrating change.”

When he leaves Number 10 on Monday, Keir Starmer will be Labour’s shortest-serving Prime Minister with a tenure of two years and 15 days. He will beat Rishi Sunak’s time in office by 126 days, but will fall short of Gordon Brown’s stint in Number 10 by 303 days.

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