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Andy Burnham Becomes UK Prime Minister

State of the Union: The Labour leader will be the UK’s seventh prime minister in the past decade.
Andy Burnham Becomes The 59th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
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Andy Burnham became Britain’s new prime minister Monday, promising a “new political model” after a decade of leadership turmoil and pledging to shift power away from London. Burnham replaces the outgoing Keir Starmer, who resigned after a political crisis precipitated by the revelation that Peter Mandelson, whom he appointed to serve as ambassador to the U.S., leaked sensitive government information to the accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

In his speech outlining his plans for his incoming government, the former mayor of Greater Manchester called his accession a “circuit-breaker for Britain” and said that he would work to alleviate public frustration with politics. Burnham announced that his administration would pursue “the biggest changes in the last 40 years” by strengthening public control of essential services, reindustrializing Britain, and devolving power from Whitehall to more local government units. He promised immediate measures to reduce the cost-of-living by Tuesday and a 10-year national plan later this year.

Burnham became the leader of the Labour party unopposed Friday and is Britain’s seventh prime minister since 2016.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article erroneously said that Epstein had been convicted of sex trafficking.

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