Burnham to Enter Downing Street as Britain’s Seventh PM in a Decade
Andy Burnham is due to become Prime Minister today after Sir Keir Starmer tenders his resignation to King Charles III. Sir Keir is expected to give a farewell address outside Downing Street this morning before travelling to Buckingham Palace; Mr Burnham will then be invited to form a government and deliver his own first speech around midday. The former Greater Manchester mayor, an MP again for barely a month, was elected Labour leader unopposed on Friday.
Mr Burnham’s ascent caps a whirlwind ten weeks, triggered by Labour’s dire May elections and his own by-election win in Makerfield, which prompted Sir Keir to announce his resignation on 22 June. He was nominated by 379 Labour MPs in what became a one-candidate contest. The sequence today follows constitutional custom: the outgoing premier resigns first, then Mr Burnham attends the palace and becomes Prime Minister the moment he accepts the King’s invitation. In his farewell, Sir Keir said that “every prime minister knows… the day will come when they have to pass it on”. Watch the timing of the palace audiences and whether both speeches pass without interruption.