Andy Burnham becomes U.K. prime minister, 7th in a decade

After two years in office characterized by policy U-turns and public unpopularity, a beleaguered Keir Starmer has officially stepped down as U.K. prime minister.

Apparently waiting in the wings to take his place was veteran politician Andy Burnham, who became the U.K.’s seventh PM in a decade today in a meeting with King Charles III, after receiving support from 379 out of 403 Labour lawmakers to become the next party leader.

Previously Mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham was sworn in as a member of parliament the same day Starmer announced his resignation, after winning a crucial by-election.

In his first speech as U.K. prime minister today, Burnham said that “people at home are fed up with politics” and that the country’s political class has “not been good enough.”

“We need to be better. We will be,” he vowed, pledging “the biggest changes in the last 40 years” and to “bring back hope.”

Let’s bring back hope. pic.twitter.com/Z6OCOPXp00

— Andy Burnham (@andyburnham) July 20, 2026

Burnham became an MP in 2001 and served as health secretary under former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown, before leaving parliament in 2017 to become mayor of Greater Manchester. He had a successful run in the job, twice being re-elected and earning the nickname “king of the north.”

Mel Cappe, distinguished fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, said in an interview with National Post that Burnham’s popularity is partly due to his “very good reputation for dealing with bread and butter issues” such as potholes and traffic during his time as mayor of Greater Manchester.

And yet, Cappe thinks Burnham is a “funny choice” for Labour leader.

Burnham, Cappe explains, is further to the left of the political spectrum than Starmer.

For example, Cappe points out, “One of the first budgets that Starmer brought in was a raise in taxes, which he had promised not to do. Burnham has said he won’t raise taxes, but we’ll see. How can he do what he wants to do without having revenue?”

In Cappe’s opinion, a more centrist candidate is more likely to see success where Starmer didn’t. “Labour is now losing to the right and losing to the left. If there’s a resurgence on the left and a resurgence on the right, you’d better pick the middle and be able to bring people from the Green Party and the Conservatives and Reform to Labour.

“I don’t think Andy Burnham is going to be able to do that now. I could be wrong, but at this point he’s had to walk back some of his more stringent and strident statements.”

Indeed, Burnham has garnered a reputation among his critics for failing to stick to his convictions, with U.K. shadow chancellor Mel Stride previously saying in a BBC interview: “All the evidence with Andy Burnham is he’s someone who flip-flops, he changes his view from one minute to the next.”

Stride added that he feels Burnham doesn’t know enough about fiscal rules, citing bond market reactions that saw borrowing costs edge higher upon his return to parliament.

And following Burnham’s first speech as prime minister today, in which he said he will seek “any flexibility” in the government’s fiscal rules, Bloomberg reports that the new leader has further spooked markets.

Meanwhile, The Telegraph reports that Burnham leaves Manchester with the highest debt of any combined authority in England, at £1.34bn (roughly $2.5bn), up from £964m before he took office in 2017, according to government figures.

Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch shares concerns around Burnham’s approach to fiscal policy, writing in a letter to the new PM that she was “disappointed” by his suggestion that taxes will rise and urging him to rule these out, lest the U.K. face a “damaging summer… affecting business investment, home owners and family finances.”

I wish Andy Burnham every success as Prime Minister. But it is my job to hold him to account.

Every announcement he makes should be properly funded. We cannot borrow more money and the tax burden is already too high, so the only answer is spending cuts.

I will work with him… pic.twitter.com/0Y98zsup9m

— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) July 20, 2026

There’s also the fact that Burnham has become the country’s new leader without earning the support of the wider public.

As Cappe points out, it’s the 25,000 Labour voters in the town where Burnham won the by-election that have effectively elected the new prime minister.

This is not particularly unusual in the U.K. — four of the six British prime ministers in the past decade got the job by winning party leadership contests, rather than a public vote — but Burnham himself has previously been critical of this system, posting “#GeneralElectionNow” on social media in October 2022, following former prime minister Liz Truss’ resignation after just 45 days in office.

#GeneralElectionNow

— Andy Burnham (@andyburnham) October 20, 2022

Results from the Makerfield by-election, a constituency in North West England, show that Burnham won 24,927 votes from the 77,462-strong electorate — that’s a 54.8 per cent share of a 58.7 per cent turnout.

For comparison, parliamentary records from the 2024 U.K. general election show that the nation’s electorate stood at 48,224,212, with 28,809,340 valid votes cast.

In terms of Burnham’s wider public perception, a recent YouGov poll found that opinions of the new PM have become more negative since the Makerfield by-election and the start of his run for Labour leader.

The survey results, which were published at the end of June, found that Burnham’s popularity had receded to -11, with 32 per cent having a positive opinion of him and 43 per cent a negative one (this latter figure being the highest to date).

Opinions on his competence, decisiveness and whether he is principled have also declined, with more Britons considering him untrustworthy than trustworthy.

And yet, despite the decline, Burnham’s figures were a marked improvement on Starmer’s, for whom 59-74 per cent of Britons labelled with each of the negative attributes polled.