Andy Burnham declared “I have a plan” to give people “hope back” and set a political direction that is “distinctively Labour” as he officially became the party’s new leader.
He said he was “ready to lead” as he took the governing party’s reins at a special conference in central London on Friday, the final step before replacing Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister next week.
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”.
Warning Labour had a “last chance to change”, he pledged to be “authentically us” instead of “wearing too many Tory clothes”.
The former Greater Manchester mayor returned to Westminster as Makerfield MP last month and gained overwhelming support from Labour MPs to take over from Sir Keir as party leader after he announced his resignation.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, as chairwoman of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee, confirmed the results of the leadership contest in which Mr Burnham was backed by 379 of the party’s 403 MPs and all 11 unions affiliated with the party.
While praising Sir Keir for putting Labour “back in a position to change people’s lives” and for passing the Hillsborough Law, Mr Burnham nevertheless suggested he had left the country in a state which “does not work for working class communities”.
“Forgotten places everywhere up and down this country” were calling “for a return of the Labour they once knew,” Mr Burnham said, adding: “We will be that version of Labour again.”
Promising to serve “people and places who have been waiting too long for politics to let them hope again”, he said: “We’re going to give them hope back.”
The new Labour leader also acknowledged that his generation of politicians had failed to challenge a political culture and economic model that did not work well enough for ordinary people.
He repeated his commitment to devolve power away from Westminster to give people “more power over life’s essentials”, while countering accusations he was too focused on Manchester by saying he would speak up for all parts of the UK.
He said he would “work to build a new politics” the country was “crying out for” as he warned: “This is a last chance to change.”
Mr Burnham, who stood in the by-election with the intention of ousting the prime minister, said he wanted to eradicate “infighting”, the “insidious briefing culture” and the “factionalism” that has “bedevilled” the party.
He later distanced himself from the decision to topple Sir Keir, telling reporters during an afternoon visit to Gravesend: “It wasn’t by me… I wasn’t in Parliament. I wasn’t in the position to be involved in that in terms of the decisions that the PLP came to.”
Insisting in his speech he had “supported all our Labour leaders in my lifetime”, Mr Burnham said: “We won’t beat Britain’s new right if we are consumed by infighting and pulling in different directions.”
Mr Burnham steps into the job at a time when his party has trailed Reform UK in opinion polls for nearly 18 months and Labour will be hoping his presence will spark a bounce and turn around its fortunes.
He said he would seek more cross-party consensus, saying that could make political discourse “that little bit less toxic”.
He pledged to “set a direction that is distinctively Labour”, adding: “We won’t try to outgreen the Greens or out-Reform Reform, or doing what we’ve done in the past of wearing too many Tory clothes.”
Mr Burnham will enter Downing Street on Monday to become the UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade, with all eyes on his policy agenda and who he will appoint to his Cabinet.
Mr Burnham said: “I haven’t made any decisions yet about who will be in that top team, but I will soon, and when I have, you will see it reflects all parts of our party, all communities, and it will reflect your own place within this great party of ours – a stronger, more united Labour Party lifting up a stronger and more united Britain.”
Elsewhere in the speech at the TUC headquarters, he vowed to be “pro-business” and to “grasp the nettle” of reforming England’s social care system.
Unions urged the incoming administration to act quickly.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “Andy Burnham’s government needs to hit the ground running and focus relentlessly on improving the living standards of working people.”
Linda Hobson, who chairs Unison’s Labour Link committee, said Mr Burnham must “show he’s the right person to deliver the party’s promise of change when Labour won its landslide in 2024”.
The centre-left Mainstream grouping of Labour MPs has called for him to appoint a “progressive chancellor”.
In what appears to be a reference to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who is reportedly in the running for the job, it urged the incoming prime minister to pick “someone who understands the threat that climate breakdown poses to people and planet and who has the courage to rebuild our state’s productive capacity”.
Ms Mahmood, whose hardline asylum reforms have proved divisive among Labour MPs, is also believed to be a top contender.
Mr Burnham defended deferring the decision when pressed by reporters, saying: “It would be somewhat premature and would, I think, cause complete chaos if you start half a reshuffle before you’re in the position.”
Addressing Labour activists in Kent on Friday afternoon, he promised to put the party “back in touch with ordinary people”.
His planned No 10 North outpost would be “as much for Gravesend as it will be for Makerfield”, he said, adding he would “be there leading from the front” on devolution.
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