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The Labour leader will be received by King Charles on Monday to be appointed Prime Minister. In the afternoon, the first government appointments, amid the cost of living and new drilling in the North Sea
LONDON. Starting Monday, Great Britain will have its sixth prime minister in ten years. Andy Burnham, leader of the Labour Party, will go to Buckingham Palace to formally receive the appointment from King Charles III, in an institutional transition that opens a phase marked, in Burnham’s own intentions, by a mix of optimism and realism. In his first speech from Downing Street, the new prime minister will say that the United Kingdom must “be honest” about the difficulties ahead, evoking a moment of “reflection and determination” for the country.
It will be a day of symbolic transitions and concrete decisions. After the ceremony at the Palace, in the afternoon Burnham will begin to assemble his government team, in an atmosphere of anticipation that, according to sources from Westminster, also involves several members of the current cabinet, still unaware of their fates. The name that enjoys the most support for the Treasury is Shabana Mahmood, while Ed Miliband would be entrusted with the Foreign Office. Group leader Jonathan Reynolds is expected to head a new department that combines economic competencies with those of science and technology, while former minister Lou Haigh is indicated as a likely head of the Cabinet Office. The position of former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner is more uncertain, as she has been identified for Health but, according to sources close to her, needs to be convinced: her political interests remain focused on devolution, territorial inequalities, local authorities, and the cost of living.
Priorities: bills, transport, and the North Sea
Before a package of measures that the government will present next week, Burnham will use his first speech from Downing Street to set the tone for his mandate: a message that combines confidence in the future with frankness about the structural problems facing the country, from the healthcare and elderly care crisis to the cost of living. The Prime Minister is expected to work on measures to reduce energy bills and, potentially, bus fares, to provide citizens with what he has described in his speeches as “more breathing room” on the economic front.
On the energy front, according to reports, Burnham would be ready to open up new oil and gas drilling in already active areas of the North Sea, although he has not approved, at least for now, new large-scale fields: a stance that reflects the commitments of the Labour Party’s electoral program, but has nonetheless sparked protests from environmentalists and discontent among some members of his own party. U.S. President Donald Trump enthusiastically commented on the news on Truth Social, claiming — with a possibly exaggerated interpretation — that “the people of Aberdeen are dancing in the streets” because the new prime minister has decided to fully embrace North Sea oil. This was downplayed by Lucy Powell, Labour’s deputy leader, who spoke instead of a “shift in emphasis” compared to the existing line, not a policy change. Burnham’s greater openness to drilling is said to have been one of the factors that pushed Miliband away from the Treasury race, given his historical opposition to new extraction when he was Energy Minister.
The ten-year plan and the interview with the Times
In an interview published Sunday evening by the Times, Burnham outlined the conceptual figure of his mandate: “We need to rethink how we manage things, to arrive at a different approach to public spending and economic management, much more focused on upfront investment, prevention, putting people in a position to succeed, and much less on paying for failures.” He spoke of a “decade-long plan for the country,” clarifying that he does not want to project himself for a decade at the helm of the government, but rather to indicate a long-term direction: “If you travel through large areas of Britain, they are still in decline. The path we need to chart is quite long. It cannot be done overnight. We need to show people where we are going and the steps to get there.”
On the fiscal front, Burnham has so far not made any definitive commitments beyond confirming the electoral pledge not to raise VAT, social security contributions, and income tax, as well as the intention to abandon the digital identity card program. When asked about a potential wealth tax, he stated that he does not want to create divisions in the country, but he left the door open for a possible future intervention, explaining that the option could be to “ask a little more” from those who have more.
Miliband, development aid and opposition criticism
The possible transition of Miliband to Foreign Affairs is seen in Westminster as a premise for a more distinctly pro-Palestinian position on the Gaza crisis and a path towards restoring development aid to 0.7% of national income, which is currently stalled at 0.2%. This hypothesis was immediately echoed by Reform UK: its leader, Nigel Farage, launched a strong attack, claiming that Burnham “wants to spend another £10 billion of your money on foreign aid” and reiterating that he “will always put Britons first.”
The issue of Thames Water remains: according to the Sunday Times, the new government would push the water company serving London and the southeast of England towards a special form of controlled administration, an intervention that could involve the state paying part of the company’s operating costs until a buyer is found. Burnham’s staff did not want to directly comment on the rumor. Lucy Powell, meanwhile, spoke more generally about the new government’s intention to expand public ownership, describing the British economy as “overly privatized” and arguing that “essential services do not work in the interest of ordinary citizens” when bills “keep rising because companies are run in private interest, not for consumers or taxpayers.”
The Conservatives are meanwhile accusing Burnham of preparing a tax increase to fund sectors that will require more resources, from elderly care to defense. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch criticized him for not clarifying his intentions before taking office and for not yet granting in-depth interviews to the media, dismissing his statements as “nonsense.” On the BBC, Badenoch described Burnham as “a complacent populist,” more inclined to please everyone than to make tough decisions.
To symbolically close his government experience, Keir Starmer released a video in which he says he is “very proud” to leave the country “in a much better condition than the one we found it in two years ago.”
