With Andy Burnham set to finally move into No 10 Downing Street, the incoming prime minister will have no shortage of issues to tackle.
During his campaign trail and since returning to parliament, the new Labour leader has delivered several speeches laying out his policy intentions.
In his first speech as prime minister, Mr Burnham will promise to give people “breathing room” against the rising cost of living and urge the country to be honest about the challenges it faces and call for “reflection and resolution”.
However, a lot of the challenges that Sir Keir Starmer faced during his premiership remain unresolved, and Mr Burnham will have to address them during his first few days in office.
But here are some of the key issues the former Manchester mayor will face:
Defence spending
One of Burnham’s most pressing jobs will be to find a way to fill a £4.7bn black hole in Britain’s defence investment plan (DIP).
Sir Keir Starmer’s £15bn plan only identifies £10.3bn of funding, while the remaining £4.7bn will be “confirmed at Budget 2026, in a fair and balanced way”.
This means Burnham, who has pledged to prioritise Britain’s defence, will have to find major savings in his first Budget this autumn.
US relations
It’s no secret that Donald Trump has dealt major blows to Britain’s ‘special relationship’ with the US during Sir Keir’s premiership.
Andy Burnham will now have to decide how he will handle the chaos and turbulence of the Trump administration.
In his initial public remarks concerning Burnham, the US president branded him “extremely liberal,” predicting he “probably won’t open up the North Sea” for oil exploration.
Burnham will likely meet Trump for the first time in late September, when he will fly out on his first international gathering at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The trip will be a major marker for his premiership and his relationship with the US president.
Welfare
Tackling welfare was one of Starmer’s most challenging jobs, and will now most certainly be one of Burnham’s, who will be in power when the final recommendations of the Timms and Milburn reviews land.
Any move by Mr Burnham to overhaul the welfare system would test the resolve of Labour backbenchers after their rebellion prevented Sir Keir Starmer making £5bn of cuts last year.
However, the newly elected Makerfield MP, who is likely to be prime minister by 20 July, could look for an approach based on reform rather than simple cuts, which could quell any appetite for dissent.
Immigration
Shabanna Mahmood’s migration reforms have caused uproar on the Labour backbenches.
Many Labour MPs will be hoping Burnham ditches the reforms – which include changes to to Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) and asylum reforms.
However, the incoming prime minister’s team have previously indicated he would not seek to water down Mahmood’s plans.
On Monday, he backed the government’s proposals which aim to cut the number of small boat crossings and instead direct people to alternative “safe and legal routes”.
They include new tighter rules on how Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which covers an individual’s right to a private and family life, will be applied, which the Home Office hopes will cut the number of asylum appeals being granted.
Tax reform
In an interview earlier this month, Mr Burnham laid out how he may approach taxation once in power, suggesting there is “some room” in the Labour manifesto for “movement on tax”.
But he also said that he plans to stick to Labour’s 2024 election manifesto promises of not raising income tax, VAT or national insurance personal contributions.
The Makerfield MP signalled he may look at hiking business rates on the giant warehouses, while lifting high street shops and pubs out of having to pay the business rates.
There have also been growing calls for a wealth tax from left-wing Labour MPs, while polling conducted earlier this year revealed that 91 per cent of party members think the government should tax the rich more.
One way to do this would be an increase in capital gains tax (CGT), which one of Mr Burnham’s top allies has called for. The proposal would mean CGT could be taxed at a 45 per cent rate, rather than the 18 to 24 per cent rate currently in place.
Devolution
Andy Burnham has long been a champion of devolution, having called for it to go further repeatedly during his time as mayor of Greater Manchester.
In his first major speech after returning to parliament, he said he will lead a decade-long plan to transform Britain by transferring power out of Whitehall and giving regions the ability to control essential utilities, transport and housing.
His flagship proposal was the creation of an outpost of Downing Street based in Manchester, dubbed ‘No 10 in the North’, which he said would serve as the “nerve centre” through which to deliver priorities including reindustrialisation and regeneration.
EU
One of Starmer’s biggest commitments was to ‘reset’ Britain’s relationship with the EU.
Burnham previously said he would like the UK to rejoin the EU within his lifetime, but since standing to become an MP, he said he will not try to return the UK to the EU, arguing that the country would be stuck in a “permanent rut if we’re just constantly arguing”.
However, the former Manchester mayor has said that he wants to work more closely with Europe on defence, writing in The Times: “I want to consolidate the progress made on the existing UK-EU negotiations and make further progress quickly, including by strengthening our co-operation on illegal migration, economic security and the broader resilience of our societies to external threats – from terrorism to AI-driven disinformation.”
Housing
Labour has pledged to build 1.5 million new homes in England within its first five years in government, but is so far projected to fall short.
In a speech in Manchester, Mr Burnham said “the country is in a housing trap” and called for a huge “council house building programme” to be brought in.
He vowed that a Burnham government would oversee the “biggest council house building programme since the post war period”, using vacant public land to reduce costs.
He also said he would focus on higher density development in existing towns, to both reinvigorate high streets and protect green spaces from development.
