The handover will begin with Sir Keir Starmer meeting King Charles at Buckingham Palace on Monday morning to formally resign. Within hours, the King will receive Andy Burnham and ask him to form a government – making him the UK's seventh prime minister in ten years.
Burnham, who won the Labour leadership without a contest on Friday, will then head to Downing Street, where he is expected to give a speech outside No 10. The 56-year-old returned to Parliament only a month ago in a by-election, defeating the Reform UK candidate and convincing Labour MPs he could stop the party's slide.
“Andy Burnham becomes PM Monday after unopposed Labour win, vowing 'No 10 North' and to stick to 2024 manifesto.”
Starmer's landslide victory in 2024 unravelled within weeks of entering Downing Street, the final straw for many Labour MPs coming when Reform UK swept local elections in May, leaving them fearing Nigel Farage would win the next general election. Senior figures such as former health secretary Wes Streeting abandoned their own leadership ambitions to back Burnham.
In his first speech as leader, at Congress House in London, Burnham declared: “I am ready, ready to lead.” He called his election “the most significant change moment in our politics for 40 years” and promised to “bring back hope”. He has ruled out calling an early general election.
Burnham says he will stick to the 2024 Labour manifesto – meaning no rise in the main rates of income tax, VAT or National Insurance, and no new North Sea oil licences. But he has also begun to set out his own plans: handing more power to councils over housing and transport, and creating a “new No 10” team based in Manchester, more than 150 miles north of London.
Critics question whether the “No 10 North” vision is a game-changer or a gimmick. Burnham promises big change but has so far offered few clues on how he will deliver it.
