Andy Burnham’s first speech as Prime Minister divided Independent readers straight away, with reaction to the new PM ranging from warm comparisons to Tony Blair’s first day in office to weary cynicism about yet another change of face in Downing Street.
Speaking outside No 10 after ‘kissing hands’ with the King, Burnham promised a ‘new national sense of unity’, a ten-year plan, and immediate measures to ease the cost-of-living squeeze – enough, for some readers, to suggest a genuine change of direction. Others weren’t convinced, dismissing it as a new slogan from the seventh prime minister in a decade.
