Keir Starmer prepares to pass baton to Andy Burnham
Updated ,first published
London: A formal transfer of power is underway in Britain as outgoing prime minister Keir Starmer prepares to visit King Charles for a private meeting at which he will resign from his post.
The meeting will pave the way for the next prime minister, Andy Burnham, to visit the King soon so the monarch can invite him to form the government and formally elevate him to leader.
In his final speech as prime minister before leaving for Buckingham Palace, Starmer said: “My job is done.”
“It has been the privilege of my life to serve you and this country as prime minister,” he said outside No. 10 Downing Street, before a crowd of media and dozens of friends and allies.
Starmer said he was proud of everything his government had achieved and had Burnham’s full support.
The talks in London will officially conclude a long fight within Labor to replace Starmer after growing discontent with his leadership and a year of planning by Burnham and her allies to seize power within the party.
Burnham, who was appointed to the top job on Monday, will become the country’s seventh prime minister since 2016.
While he has broad ambitions in speeches and interviews, he has yet to name cabinet ministers and resolve disagreements among his supporters over who will take on the important Treasury post of chancellor of the finance ministry.
Given that the country’s net public debt is £2.9 trillion ($5.6 trillion) (equivalent to 95 percent of annual economic output) and rising, bond market investors are closely watching the cabinet decision.
Burnham, who has spent the last nine years as mayor of Greater Manchester, set out the broad themes of his plans in a speech three weeks ago, knowing he had enough people within the Labor Party to run a government.
“We will create a more orderly state with a clearer purpose to deliver energy to every part of the country and to have a laser-like focus on growth and renewal – good growth,” he said.
But Burnham attracted attention by pledging to change some of the powers of the prime minister’s office, which is based at Number 10 Downing Street in London – near major civil service departments around Whitehall; thus a new government body would be responsible for northern England and other areas outside the capital.
Burnham called his proposed new office “Number 10 North”, and this phrase dominated media coverage of his speech, although he did not specify any details of how it would work.
Labor has 403 seats in the House of Commons, giving it a comfortable majority. The Conservative Party has 117 seats, the Liberal Democrats have 71 seats, Reform England has 7 seats, and the Greens have 5 seats. The rest consists of small parties and independents.
But while divisions within the Labor parliamentary party have weakened the government, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has made big gains in local government elections and has risen in opinion polls as a potential prime minister.
Burnham’s rise began in earnest on 19 May, when she overcame resistance from Starmer’s allies and won the party’s approval to stand as the Labor candidate in a by-election for the seat of Makerfield, which she won on 19 June.
Starmer announced that he would resign on June 22. With Labor MPs making clear they want a new leader, Starmer has set up an internal party timetable to decide who will replace him. Burnham was the only candidate when party officials called for nominations; This was an extraordinary development, considering that he had become a member of the House of Commons only a few days earlier.
While Burnham will be the seventh prime minister in nearly a decade, she is also described as the sixth prime minister in 10 years.
Former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron resigned 10 years and a week ago on July 13, 2016. He was followed by Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak from the Conservative Party. They were followed by Starmer and Burnham.
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David Crowe is the European correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect with: X or email.
