UK’s new PM Andy Burnham vows to end years of instability

Andy Burnham took office on Monday as Britain’s new prime minister, promising a 10-year plan to restore political stability and revive the economy while acknowledging that six other UK leaders have tried and failed to do so in the past decade.

Speaking outside 10 Downing Street minutes after being formally appointed by King Charles, Burnham pledged to ease the cost of living for ordinary people, decentralise political power, revitalise industry and end street sleeping by homeless people.

He said he would deliver a “circuit breaker” for a system that has taken wrong turns since the 1980s, when public services and utilities were privatised and local government eroded.

“We 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,” he said.

Burnham said he was “acutely conscious” of the political revolving door he was walking through.

“This is a moment for reflection and new resolution,” he said. “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.”