LONDON — Keir Starmer is out. Andy Burnham is in.
On Monday, outgoing Prime Minister Starmer traveled to Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation to King Charles III. Shortly afterward, Burnham made the same journey and was invited by the king to form a new government.
Burnham then returned to Downing Street, where he delivered his first remarks as prime minister. He said: “It requires my generation of politicians to raise our game.” He said politicians are “acknowledging that many voters have grown frustrated with politics.”
“I want to be honest with you: We have not been good enough, and we need to be better,” Burnham said. “We will be.”
Burnham becomes the U.K.’s seventh prime minister in a little over a decade since Britons voted in June 2016 to leave the European Union. That decision ultimately shrank the British economy, triggered anger at the governing class and contributed to a revolving door of prime ministers. Burnham is likely to face some of the same challenges that stymied Starmer: rising costs of living, slow growth and a volatile American ally across the Atlantic.
Starmer delivered his final speech outside No. 10 Downing St. earlier on Monday before heading to Buckingham Palace to formally resign as prime minister, declaring: “My work is done.”
“In 6 1/2 years, I took our party from a historic defeat in 2019, changed it so it was fit to face the country, and won a landslide general election victory in 2024,” Starmer said. He described serving as prime minister as “the privilege of my life” and said he was leaving office confident Britain was “stronger and fairer” than it was two years ago.
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