Andy Burnham uses first speech as UK prime minister to call for ‘national sense of unity’

The new PM said he wants to put ‘the right values and the right standards at the heart of government’

New UK prime minister Andy Burnham makes a speech outside 10 Downing Street after meeting King Charles and accepting his invitation to form a new government. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

UK prime minister Andy Burnham promised to win over voters “fed up with politics” and show the world that the UK can once again be a source of stability.

Mr Burnham used his first speech as prime minister in Downing Street to promise to take power out of Westminster and give the public greater control over “life’s essentials”.

Speaking without the lectern used by his predecessors, Mr Burnham said he would set out a ten-year plan later this year, and, starting on Tuesday, measures to address the cost-of-living squeeze and give people “breathing space now”.

In his first promise as prime minister, he said he would “end rough sleeping in our country”. 

Just hours before his maiden speech, he visited the homelessness charity The Passage in London’s Victoria.

Mr Burnham, who was met with cheers by supporters in Downing Street, said: “I am acutely conscious that I am the sixth person in the last 10 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.”

Andy Burnham with supporters outside 10 Downing Street (Gareth Fuller/PA)

The Labour leader pledged to “make this moment a circuit breaker for Britain”, with the biggest transformation in the last 40 years.

He said: “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.” 

He concluded his first speech as Prime Minister by urging people to “pull with me” to “build a new national sense of unity, of common purpose and positivity”.

Mr Burnham became prime minister after “kissing hands” with King Charles – the private ceremony by which he accepted the invitation to form a government.

The carefully choreographed handover of power came after Keir Starmer had his own audience with the king to formally resign.

In his final appearance in Downing Street, Mr Starmer said “my work is done” and he was leaving the country “stronger and fairer” than when he took office just two years ago.

The speeches by the incoming and outgoing prime ministers were quieter than Mr Starmer’s announcement that he would be resigning last month, as a Metropolitan Police ban prevented protesters, including anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray, from playing loud music outside Downing Street to drown out his words.