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Andy Burnham has said his arrival in power will be a “circuit breaker” moment for Britain, pledging that his government will restore hope to millions of people.
Addressing the country for the first time from outside No ۱۰ Downing Street after taking over from Keir Starmer, the new prime minister said he would set out a ۱۰-year plan for the country later this year to transform the politics and economics of the UK from “where we are now to where I believe we all want Britain to be”.
Acknowledging the cost of living pressures faced by people across the country, he also said he would start announcing measures on Tuesday to give them “some breathing space now”, expected to include help with energy bills and bus fares. He said he would set out how they would be funded.
Burnham announced his first instruction in power would be to end rough sleeping – a pledge previously made by Jeremy Corbyn when he was Labour leader – after a visit to homeless people in central London on Monday morning.
He formally took over from Starmer after meeting King Charles at Buckingham Palace, becoming the sixth UK prime minister in a decade, a fact he acknowledged in his speech.
Speaking without notes, and watched by his wife, Marie-France van Heel, he said: “I am acutely conscious that I am the sixth person in the last ۱۰ years to walk up this street, the seventh prime minister since ۲۰۱۶, 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, and that is our challenge to make politics work, to make it work better.
“I know people at home are fed up with politics. I hear you, and I want to be honest with you. We have not been good enough, and we need to be better. We will be.”
Burnham, who took over from Starmer as the leader of the Labour party on Friday, has put transforming the UK’s economic system at the heart of his plans, despite limited room for manoeuvre before the next election given his commitment to the fiscal rules.
“We will make this moment a circuit breaker for Britain, bringing forward the biggest changes in the last ۴۰ years. A new political model and a new economic model,” he said.
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“In the ۱۹۸۰s, 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 we will take power out of here and carry it into every postcode in the land, so that they can do more.”
The former Greater Manchester mayor, who will begin making cabinet appointments on Monday afternoon, said his government would put “the right values and the right standards” at its heart.
“I will put the care of people at the heart of everything I do, I will give this my all, and I ask you all to pull with me,” he told the assembled crowd, which included his close ally Steve Rotheram, the Liverpool city region mayor, and the former Everton star Peter Reid.
“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.”
Burnham returned to parliament last month in a byelection staged by his allies with the explicit purpose of replacing Starmer, after the incumbent lost the support of many Labour MPs and a number of his ministers after a series of political mishaps and U-turns.
