Andy Burnham declared there were “five things” he will do to improve Britain as he was confirmed as Labour’s new leader.
He said he was “ready to lead” as he took the governing party’s reins before officially replacing Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister on Monday.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Burnham vowed to “build a new politics” with less division and factionalism, saying the party needed to unite if it was to thwart “Britain’s new right”.
He laid out five measures he claimed would fix Britain and his party.
Andy Burnham arrives in Gravesend, as he makes his first official visit as Labour leader
Getty
1. Eradicating Labour’s ‘insidious briefing culture’
Mr Burnham declared that he will “work relentlessly to build a culture of one Labour team” because “change starts” with his party.
He claimed that an “insidious briefing culture” within Labour had “bedevilled” the party and caused mistrust among the public.
“Today we move beyond it,” he told the conference.
“I have supported all our Labour leaders in my lifetime because I believe a united Labour Party and Labour movement is the best hope for our country, and I know you believe that too, as do our members up and down the land.”
2. Build a ‘new politics’
The government must have the “courage” to fix the things that “politics has neglected”, Mr Burnham said, singling out issues such as social care.
He pledged to listen to the electorate and “argue” for Labour’s vision.
“By seeking more consensus, we may just find the change we make is more lasting, he said.
“We may find our political discourse in this country becomes that little bit less toxic, and we should be working to achieve that too. And the turbulence of the last decade may not quite feel as so inevitable as it does today.”
Andy Burnham with his wife Marie-France van Heel (right), Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell (left) and Home Secretary and Chair of Labour’s National Executive Committee Shabana Mahmood (centre)
PA
In the 1980s Britain’s political power became too centralised and privatised, Mr Burnham said as he hinted that more industries would be brought into public ownership.
Britain had “surrendered control of the essentials”, including housing, water, energy and transport, which has left the public exposed to higher costs and “wealth and power in the hands of fewer people and fewer places”, Mr Burnham argued.
He pledged to work with other parties to bring about change but said Labour would not seek to “out Green the Greens, or out Reform Reform” or “wear too many Tory clothes”.
“If we want an economy and a country that works for all people and places, which to me should always be at the very core of Labourism, then it requires a new path to the one we’ve been on for the last 40 years,” Mr Burnham said.
“The government I lead will confidently lay that path out starting next week, and that is why this change today is the most significant change moment in our politics for 40 years.
“It will take us to a country where life is more affordable, and all people and places are lifted from where they are now.”
4. A leader for ‘all of Britain’
Mr Burnham has faced accusations that he is pro-north at the expense of London and the south.
But he pledged to be a leader for all of Britain in his acceptance speech and will spend August “in all parts of the UK”.
“I will be a leader for the north, the south, the east, and the west, for Scotland, Wales, and for Northern Ireland,” he said,
“Yes, the north of England has given me so much, everything, in fact. And in return, I have sought to give it the strongest voice I could.
“That was my job, but now I do the same for everywhere, because I see the same challenges everywhere I look.”
In his final pledge, Mr Burnham said he would “take power back from Westminster and Whitehall”.
He vowed to give more authority to regions to put in place policies that would impact local people.
“We want to give your area more power to build the council and social homes that you desperately need,” Mr Burnham said.
“More power to improve your high street, backing local businesses such as the pubs and the shops that bring them to life.
“I will be a pro-business leader of the Labour Party, as I was a pro-business mayor of Greater Manchester. We turn places round together, and that is the way we ran in Manchester, and we will take to the whole country.”
