Andy Burnham said his return to No 10 would “bring back hope” as he launched his premiership by naming John Healey as chancellor and setting out plans to help repair damage to communities, particularly those affected by the Thatcher era.

Speaking outside Downing Street after taking over from Keir Starmer, Burnham said people were “fed up” with politics and that the government needed to “do better” in delivering change. He made the comments as he faced the immediate challenge of governing within existing fiscal constraints while promising a stronger programme for public services and investment.

Cost of living package and borrowing rules

Burnham told the country that the government would offer “breathing space” on Tuesday, with a package aimed at reducing costs for households. Plans expected to include cuts to energy bills and bus fares were described as fully funded.

Later, he said he would look at “any flexibility” within the government’s fiscal rules to allow borrowing of billions more for infrastructure. He added that he would take a “very prudent” approach to the economy, in comments that were followed by a fall in UK 10-year gilt prices.

Markets moved lower after his remarks, reflecting concerns about the risks associated with higher borrowing and increased debt, although they had closed by the time Healey was announced.

Cabinet reshuffle and senior appointments

Healey, a former defence secretary, was chosen as a compromise candidate after Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood were also described as potential contenders for the post. Miliband was confirmed as foreign secretary, while Mahmood remained at the Home Office.

Burnham’s arrival marked the UK’s sixth prime minister in a decade, following Labour MPs who removed Starmer from office. He used Monday evening to finalise cabinet appointments after sacking a number of senior figures described as Starmer loyalists, including chancellor Rachel Reeves and deputy prime minister David Lammy.

Louise Haigh was named first secretary of state and chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, overseeing an expanded Cabinet Office described as the “political engine room” for Burnham’s agenda.

Yvette Cooper moved from the Foreign Office to the Department of Health, where she will oversee plans to transform social care. Pat McFadden remained at the Department for Work and Pensions.

Burnham, who had taken over as Labour leader on Friday, acknowledged that his ability to change the economic framework before the next election may be limited by the government’s commitment to fiscal rules.

Calls to Trump and European leaders

In his first call with a world leader, Burnham spoke to Donald Trump. Trump had previously suggested Burnham was only mayor of a “town”, but Burnham invited him to Manchester for next year’s G20 summit.

He also spoke to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen.

Addressing the public without notes and with his wife, Marie-France van Heel, watching, Burnham said his role came at a moment of reflection for politicians and that the country needed to regain stability. He told the crowd: “Let’s build a new national sense of unity, of common purpose, and positivity,” and said the government’s goal was to make the start of his premiership “the moment we bring back hope.”

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21 July 2026

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I have a feeling that the cure will be more harmful than the disease itself.

Good to see 2 tear Reeves gone.

The fact these politicians can just move around from one department to another just shows how little you need to understand to be [insertrolehere]. It's purely ideological.

If my boss suddenly told me I was going to be the new logistics/finance/production manager, I'd tell him to give his head a wobble since I know nothing about those fields and have 30 years experience in my current role of [mycurrentrole].

In politics, they just move around, heading up departments that they know nothing about (Reeves was a customer services manager before becoming chancellor of the exchequer) and yet have massive implications for the success of the country.

And then we have Burnham as PM, dancing around to New Order, helicoptered in to get 25,000 votes in Makerfield a month ago and didn't even stand on the Labour manifesto. Refuses to answer questions. Nobody knows what he thinks about anything.

It would be funny if it weren't so terrifying.

Rayner, the stamp duty dodger, back as housing secretary. 😄

3 hours ago, JonnyF said:

Rayner, the stamp duty dodger, back as housing secretary. 😄

Don't forget the convicted fraudster Louise Haigh who has now been made deputy prime minister. This conviction prevents her from getting any job in law enforcement, any legal profession and any financial services job, yet she has been promoted to one of the highest jobs in the country. Out of 400+ MPs, how can they all be so useless at their jobs, that Burnham could not find a single non convicted fraudster amongst them to fill this role.

From Coronation Street to Downing Street in a few weeks. Wes Streeting from Health minister to Defence Secretary what could go wrong with our Defence. Does Wes even know the pointie end of the gun is where the bullet exits.

I'm not a Labour supporter, in fact if there was a General Election tomorrow I'm not sure I'd give anyone my vote, but I'll sit back and wait a while before making any judgements.

As with most jobs, the boss is rarely the most knowledgeable of the team. Ministers are usually chosen to join the cabinet for their leadership skills. That still sends chills down my spine with some of the chosen ones but this is a regular occurrence and has been across many governments in my lifetime.

Edited July 21Jul 21 by youreavinalaff

2 hours ago, youreavinalaff said:

I'm not a Labour supporter, in fact if there was a General Election tomorrow I'm not sure I'd give anyone my vote, but I'll sit back and wait a while before making any judgements.

As with most jobs, the boss is rarely the most knowledgeable of the team. Ministers are usually chosen to join the cabinet for their leadership skills. That still sends chills down my spine with some of the chosen ones but this is a regular occurrence and has been across many governments in my lifetime.

I say, steady on.

Waiting for evidence before drawing a conclusion.

That will never catch on.

3 hours ago, RayC said:

I say, steady on.

Waiting for evidence before drawing a conclusion.

That will never catch on.

Lots of us suggested 2 years ago that Starmer was hopelessly out of his depth and were proved right. It was painfully clear that Starmer should never have been promoted above middle management. Burnham is even less prepared and even more out of his depth. He is taking the David Brent approach with cringy instagram posts and singing stupid little songs about hope and hearts. Embarrassing. He has no idea how much trouble the UK is in financially and his solution seems to be making promises with cheques that cannot be cashed. He doesn't want to wear the attire of a statesman nor does he want to work in the office for that role. It's as clear as day he is in the wrong job.

I've seen enough evidence. Anyone who gets given a job without proving themselves and skips the interview process always fails.

55 minutes ago, James105 said:

Lots of us suggested 2 years ago that Starmer was hopelessly out of his depth and were proved right. It was painfully clear that Starmer should never have been promoted above middle management. Burnham is even less prepared and even more out of his depth. He is taking the David Brent approach with cringy instagram posts and singing stupid little songs about hope and hearts. Embarrassing. He has no idea how much trouble the UK is in financially and his solution seems to be making promises with cheques that cannot be cashed. He doesn't want to wear the attire of a statesman nor does he want to work in the office for that role. It's as clear as day he is in the wrong job.

I've seen enough evidence. Anyone who gets given a job without proving themselves and skips the interview process always fails.

The fact that you were proved correct about Starmer has no bearing on whether your views on Burnham will be proved correct. They are independent events.

I cringe at Burnham's "professional Northerner" personna, and I would have thought that there were more pressing matters than relocating some staff to Manchester. Nevertheless, that is relatively unimportant in the big scheme of things. I'm pretty sure that Burnham has access to more data about the UK's financial position and, therefore, a better idea of the problems which require solving than those of us on AN.

It's Day 2 of his premiership. I will adopt the same principle as @youreavinalaff and wait a while - at least until the budget - before offering an opinion about Burnham's policies. I might even give him the luxury of a year or two before making any conclusions about the success of those policies.

Attorney general Lord Hermer, who under Starmer was so keen to give away the Chagos Islands and pay for the privilege, has been replaced by Ellie Reeves, the sister of former chancellor Rachel Reeves. Didn't see that one coming. Didn't even know she had a sister in politics!

11 hours ago, RayC said:

I cringe at Burnham's "professional Northerner" personna, and I would have thought that there were more pressing matters than relocating some staff to Manchester. Nevertheless, that is relatively unimportant in the big scheme of things. I'm pretty sure that Burnham has access to more data about the UK's financial position and, therefore, a better idea of the problems which require solving than those of us on AN.

The financial position of the UK is very public. Here are the headlines:

National debt: almost £3tn. Equivalent to a debt of £76,000 per taxpayer.

Welfare bill: £335bn per year.

Income tax intake: £330bn per year.

Peoples income tax no longer even covers the amount the UK is paying people not to work. He has stated he wants to increase foreign aid spending, spend billions re-nationalizing services. The gilt prices that saw the end of Liz Truss have increased to higher than they ever were when Truss was in office so increasing the debt is going to be even more expensive. He hasn't mentioned a single thing about net zero, immigration or welfare. His judgement is extremely poor as evidenced by employing a convicted fraudster as deputy PM, a stamp duty avoider (who should have been convicted for tax avoidance) as housing minister and someone who has never once owned a business or held any job in the private sector and who lied about being a solicitor the position of business secretary, and net zero zealot Milliband will be given private jet usage to fly around the world telling other countries they can also have the highest energy costs in the world by embracing net zero.

He is out of his depth by a long, long way and he doesn't have a clue what to do about the issues the UK is facing. Today is the day his popularity is at its highest and if he was smart he would call an election now to take advantage of the fact he is not Starmer and people will wrongly think (like yourself) he cannot possibly be as clueless or inept as Starmer.

On 7/22/2026 at 3:58 AM, James105 said:

The financial position of the UK is very public. Here are the headlines:

National debt: almost £3tn. Equivalent to a debt of £76,000 per taxpayer.

Welfare bill: £335bn per year.

Income tax intake: £330bn per year.

Peoples income tax no longer even covers the amount the UK is paying people not to work. He has stated he wants to increase foreign aid spending, spend billions re-nationalizing services. The gilt prices that saw the end of Liz Truss have increased to higher than they ever were when Truss was in office so increasing the debt is going to be even more expensive. He hasn't mentioned a single thing about net zero, immigration or welfare. His judgement is extremely poor as evidenced by employing a convicted fraudster as deputy PM, a stamp duty avoider (who should have been convicted for tax avoidance) as housing minister and someone who has never once owned a business or held any job in the private sector and who lied about being a solicitor the position of business secretary, and net zero zealot Milliband will be given private jet usage to fly around the world telling other countries they can also have the highest energy costs in the world by embracing net zero.

He is out of his depth by a long, long way and he doesn't have a clue what to do about the issues the UK is facing. Today is the day his popularity is at its highest and if he was smart he would call an election now to take advantage of the fact he is not Starmer and people will wrongly think (like yourself) he cannot possibly be as clueless or inept as Starmer.

The headline figures are - as you correctly say - public knowledge but it is the individual data on expenditure that make up those headline figures which are the ones that count.

Again, you are correct to say that the bond markets are jittery but they have not gone into free fall as they did under Trusses' disastrous premiership. They appear, for the time being at least, to be willing to do what you refuse to do: Give Burnham time to prove himself.

The measures announced so far seem a lot like gimmickry to me but, unlike you, I'll wait a bit longer than 3 days before deciding that Burnham is out of his depth.