Andy Burnham promised to “give people hope back” and restore “the Labour they once knew” as he formally took over as the party’s new leader, setting the stage for a change at the top of government next week.
Declaring he is “ready to lead”, Mr Burnham assumed control of the governing party at a special conference held at the Trades Union Congress headquarters in central London — the final hurdle before he replaces Keir Starmer as prime minister on Monday.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Burnham said his leadership would bring “hope” and draw a line under the internal division that has dogged Labour.
He told delegates the movement that rallied behind him had “heard the call from the people of Makerfield on behalf of forgotten places everywhere up and down this country for a return of the Labour they once knew”.
“And now we answer that call,” he said.
“We will be that version of Labour again.”
Mr Burnham added: “We are united, and we put the power that comes from that unity at the service of people and places who have been waiting too long for politics to let them hope again.
“That’s what we’re going to do, everybody. We’re going to give them hope back.”
Burnham vows UK’s biggest decentralisation of power
The former Greater Manchester mayor returned to Westminster last month as the MP for Makerfield and then secured overwhelming backing from Labour MPs to succeed Mr Starmer as party leader after the outgoing prime minister announced his resignation.
Mr Burnham, who contested the by-election with the aim of removing the Prime Minister, said he wants to root out “infighting”, tackle the “insidious briefing culture” and end the “factionalism” that has “bedevilled” Labour.
Stressing he had “supported all our Labour leaders in my lifetime”, he warned that the party could not afford to turn inward. “We won’t beat Britain’s new right if we are consumed by infighting and pulling in different directions,” he said, calling it “an indulgence that falls heaviest on the people who need Labour most”.
Keir Starmer’s unpopularity across Britain turned his MPs against him
Mr Burnham also signalled a shift in tone at Westminster, saying he would look for more cross-party consensus to make politics “that little bit less toxic”.
At the same time, he said Labour would chart its own course. Promising to “set a direction that is distinctively Labour”, he added: “We won’t try to outgreen the Greens or out-Reform Reform, or doing what we’ve done in the past of wearing too many Tory clothes.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, acting as chairwoman of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee, formally announced the leadership result, confirming Mr Burnham was backed by 379 of the party’s 403 MPs and all 11 unions affiliated with Labour.
He is due to enter No 10 Downing Street on Monday, becoming the UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade, as attention turns to his policy priorities and who will join him around the Cabinet table.
Mr Burnham said his senior team would draw from every wing of the party.
With speculation already swirling over appointments, he told the conference: “I haven’t made any decisions yet about who will be in that top team, but I will soon, and when I have, you will see it reflects all parts of our party, all communities, and it will reflect your own place within this great party of ours – a stronger, more united Labour Party lifting up a stronger and more united Britain.”
