ANDY Burnham has delivered his first speech after officially becoming the UK’s new Prime Minister.
Speaking from Downing Street before he crossed the threshold of Number 10, the new Prime Minister made a number of pledges including ending rough sleeping, building more council homes and tackling youth unemployment.
It gave the public some of the first indications of what a Burnham premiership would look like, as the MP has kept a studiously low profile since he emerged as the heir apparent to Keir Starmer.
These are the key points from Burnham’s first speech as Prime Minister.
The 10-year-plan
Burnham said he would “later this year” unveil a 10-year-plan to fix the UK.
He said: “Later this year, I will bring forward a new plan for Britain – a 10-year plan – laying out a path from where we are now, to where I believe we all want Britain to be, wherever we’re coming from, whatever party we support.”
Burnham did not dwell on this for long – swiftly moving onto more immediate measures – but his earlier diagnosis in the speech of where he felt Britain’s ills stemmed from may give a clue as to what this might look like.
Earlier in the speech, delivered without notes and without the now infamous Downing Street lectern, the new Prime Minister said: “In the 1980s Britain took some wrong turns. Political power was centralised, economic power privatised, large parts of the country deindustrialised, and they still haven’t recovered.
“Many feel as though they’re still in decline and they don’t have the ability to turn things around.
“And that’s why we will change politics, to make it more collaborative, more about problem solving than point scoring, and will take power out of here and carry it into every postcode in the land, so that they can do more, and in doing more, build a new economy where we put life’s essentials back under stronger public control to make them affordable to you again, reindustrialising Britain using public procurement to back British industry.”
Cost-of-living
In more immediate terms, Burnham said that there would be an announcement on cost-of-living support on Tuesday.
He said: “But I can do something to give people some breathing space now, some help with the cost of living, and I will set out some of those measures starting tomorrow, including how we pay for them.
“We will help more young people into work by changing the education system and giving them more support, more mental health support, and we will build more council homes.
“That is the fair and sustainable way to bring the welfare bill down to meet our fiscal rules and to honour our commitments on defence to our international partners.”
Burnham gave no detail on what the announcement would be but it has previously been reported that the new Prime Minister was considering plans to cut energy bills by £130 a year and reducing the price of running a heat pump.
Speaking after he was installed as Labour leader on Friday, after no challenge against his ascent materialised, Burnham vowed to reduce the price of essentials.
Rough sleeping
The new Prime Minister said that his “first instruction” to officials would be to end rough sleeping.
After talking about his desire to lead a Government which would “help people to live well” by “building a more preventative state, investing in people’s success rather than paying for failure”, he said: “And that work starts now. I will soon go through that door behind me and issue my first instruction – to end rough sleeping in our country.
“It’s about putting the right values and the right standards at the heart of government.”
Burnham’s record on this issue in his previous role as Greater Manchester mayor will concern some, with him having overseen rising levels of rough sleeping every year between 2021 and 2025, according to local news site The Mill.
And his policy to curb homelessness in the city has also proven contentious with disabled mothers put behind people “at risk” of rough sleeping in social housing priority lists, The Mill reported earlier this year.
Stability
Burnham, like his predecessor, promised to bring stability to an ever-more fractious British political scene.
He said: “I have just come from Buckingham Palace, where I have accepted His Majesty the King’s invitation to form a government.
“In doing so, I am acutely conscious that I am the sixth person in the last ten years to walk up this street, the seventh prime minister since 2016, making this a moment for reflection and new resolution.
“It requires my generation of politicians to raise our game and rise to the new challenge.
“Britain needs to show the world that we can regain our stability once again.”
Burnham concluded his speech by saying: “I will give this my all, and I ask you all to pull with me. Let’s build a new national sense of unity, of common purpose and positivity.
“Let us make this the moment when Britain starts to believe again, the moment we bring back hope.”
