Andy Burnham to pledge to be ‘unashamedly Labour’ when he becomes party leader

Andy Burnham will promise to be “unashamedly Labour” when he officially becomes the party’s leader on Friday before taking over from Keir Starmer as UK prime minister next week.

He will say in a speech that his government will have the “courage to fix the big things that politics has neglected” and the “conviction to argue for our plans”.

The former Greater Manchester mayor, who returned to Westminster last month as Makerfield MP, will be confirmed as Labour leader in a special conference and then enter No 10 on Monday.

Burnham will set out plans to focus on economic renewal, more public control and reindustrialisation.

And he will say that Britain took “a series of wrong turns in the 1980s” when “political power was centralised and economic power privatised”.

Making the economy work for people across the UK will require “a new path to the one we’ve been on for the last 40 years”, Burnham is set to say.

He will promise that the party under his leadership will be “unashamedly Labour in our priorities and in the decisions we take, putting people and places at the heart of everything we do”.

He will pledge to make the party more united under his leadership and pay tribute to Starmer for returning Labour to government, while praising the achievements his party has made so far since 2024, including on workers’ rights, the NHS and the passing of the Hillsborough Law.

Burnham was the only candidate to get the required support to replace Starmer as party leader after his resignation.

He was backed by 369 of the party’s 403 MPs, far surpassing the 81 needed, and secured the support of eight of the 11 unions affiliated with the party.

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.

Starmer has said he believes Labour can win the next election under Burnham, and that he is “proud to hand over the party in good shape” to his successor.

Questions remain about how far the former mayor’s plans will differ from Starmer’s agenda.

Burnham has spoken about how he wants to push powers to local leaders outside Westminster as part of his devolution agenda and to create a “No 10 North” outpost of Downing Street based in Manchester.

He has said he will stick to Rachel Reeves’ fiscal rules as well as manifesto pledges not to raise income tax, VAT or national insurance, but declined to rule out a wealth tax in an interview this week.

The make-up of his top team in Cabinet has also not been confirmed, with energy secretary Ed Miliband, home secretary Shabana Mahmood and foreign secretary Yvette Cooper all rumoured as potential picks for his chancellor.

He has drafted in Matthew McGregor, who has worked on elections in the UK and abroad and is currently chief executive of campaign group 38 Degrees, as his No 10 director of political strategy.