Prime Minister Keir Starmer resigns, UK faces new leadership
Britain faces its seventh prime minister in just over a decade after Keir Starmer announced his resignation.
LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) – Andy Burnham, nicknamed the “King of the North,” will be sworn in as leader of Britain’s ruling Labor Party on Friday, the final step in his bid to become the seventh prime minister in a decade on a pledge to halt the rise of populist Reform Britain.
Mr Burnham, who earned his nickname as Mayor of Greater Manchester for his determination to protect local interests, will be elected with overwhelming support from Labor MPs at Friday’s special meeting.
The event is just a formality before Keir Starmer is sworn in as Britain’s leader on Monday, when the party will look into his ministerial team and want to know more about his approach to government.
Burnham’s massive “rebalance of power”
Mr Burnham, 56, will deliver a message in his speech that his government will be a “genuine Labor Party” overseeing economic recovery, strengthening public control, reindustrialization and putting power back in the hands of local communities.
According to excerpts from the speech, the prime minister promises to give Britain “a new path to the path we have been on for the past 40 years” and that the government will be “unabashedly Labor in our priorities and decisions, putting people and places at the heart of everything we do.”
But there’s still much to learn about how Burnham will govern.
He has spoken once since returning to parliament last month after winning the seat in Makerfield. It marked the beginning of a four-week process to remove Starmer, who installed him as prime minister and is unpopular across Britain and whose MPs are hostile to him.
In it, he outlined some of his domestic agenda and said he wanted to oversee the “biggest rebalancing of power” from London to England’s regions. He said he believed this would reduce inequality and the anger felt by “marginalized communities” who are increasingly flocking to reform.
The message that there was a plan to halt the rise of reformists appealed to Labor MPs who feared losing their seats to veteran Brexiteer Nigel Farage’s populist party at the next national election, due by 2029. Reformers have been leading the polls for months.
Some of that shine has been tarnished in recent weeks by Mr Farage’s acceptance of money from wealthy donors, perhaps giving Mr Burnham a chance to revive Labour’s fortunes.
But he doesn’t have much time.
With a general election less than three years away, Mr Burnham needs to start delivering on some of his promises as soon as possible, many of which are based on long-term thinking.
Nigel Wilcock, executive director of the Economic Development Institute, an independent body representing economic development professionals, said Mr Burnham had spent years making the case for a different approach to economic growth.
“The challenge is to make that vision a reality.”
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
