Andy Burnham ‘Promises To End Rough Sleeping’ In First Speech As Prime Minister

Andy Burnham has promised to “end rough sleeping” in the UK in his first speech as prime minister.

The Makerfield MP said he was “acutely aware” he is the seventh UK prime minister in a decade, and that this is a “moment for reflection and new resolution”.

Speaking from Downing Street, he said he will unveil a 10-year plan to improve life in the UK.

He also promised to set out some of his fully-costed proposals to help ease the cost of living in the UK on Tuesday.

Burnham made his first official pledge as prime minister in promising to end rough sleeping across the country, too.

Speaking shortly after Keir Starmer gave his own farewell speech in Downing Street, the Makerfield MP said: “Britain needs to show the world that we can regain our stability once again, and that is our challenge – to make politics work, to make it work better.

“I know people at home are fed up with politics. I hear you. I want to be honest with you, we have not been good enough and we need to be better. We will be.

“We will make this moment a circuit-breaker for Britain, bringing forward the biggest changes for the last 40 years.”

He promised a new political and economic model via devolution, and criticised the way political power had been centralised in the last few decades.

He said: “Many [areas] feel they are still in decline, and they don’t have the ability to turn things around. That’s why we will change politics.”

The prime minister vowed to make politics “more collaborative” and “more about problem-solving than point-scoring.”

He also promised to put “life’s essentials under stronger public control” and re-industrialise Britain.

Burnham concluded his first speech by promising to “give it my all”, and urging the public to “pull with me” to “build a new national sense of unity, of common purpose and positivity”.

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