Andy Burnham Vows To ‘Fix The Big Things’ In First Speech As Labour Leader

Andy Burnham will announce his plan to “fix the big things that politics has neglected” in his first major speech as Labour leader today.

The Makerfield MP will be announced as the winner of the race to replace Keir Starmer during a special conference in London.

Burnham ran uncontested with the support of the vast majority of Labour MPs.

He will become the prime minister on Monday, although much of the detail of his plans for government remain a mystery.

Speaking on Friday, Burnham will say Labour needs to give people across Britain “the hope that we will make this country the best it can be”.

He will criticise the government of the 1980s for centralising political power in Westminster and giving economic power to private companies, and argue the country needs “a new path to the one we’ve been on for the last 40 years”.

After Starmer was accused of not staying true to Labour values, Burnham will promise a more “authentically Labour” programme including a focus on economic renewal, more public control, re-industrialisation and power back in the hands of local communities.

Burnham will also pledge to make his party more united and focused on practical solutions instead of internal division, and more open to cross-party consensus.

He will commit to being a leader “for the North and the South, for Scotland, for Wales and for Northern Ireland, and for every town and every city in every nation and region of this great country”.

He is set to pay tribute to Starmer too, for managing to get the party back in government after its catastrophic loss in the 2019 general election.

During the outgoing prime minister’s final TV interview as Labour leader on Thursday, Starmer told Sky News he is ending his time at his party’s helm “knowing that I leave the country in a better state than I found it”.

He also claimed it is he who laid the “foundation for Labour to win the next general election”, while acknowledging that many of his own MPs no longer thought he was the right person to lead them into such a public vote.

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