Andy Burnham Becomes Labour Leader En Route to Becoming Britain’s Prime Minister

The former mayor of Greater Manchester was unchallenged by fellow lawmakers following Keir Starmer’s resignation and is set to become prime minister on July 20.

Andy Burnham waves as he leaves Labour's 'Special Conference' where he was confirmed as the Labour Party's new leader and the country's next prime minister, in central London on July 17, 2026. Toby Shepheard / AFP via Getty Images

Andy Burnham officially became leader of Britain’s governing Labour Party on July 17, the final ‌step before becoming the country’s seventh prime minister in a politically turbulent decade.

At a special conference in London on July 17, the former mayor of Greater Manchester was officially ​confirmed as party leader after gaining overwhelming support from Labour lawmakers.

Burnham has only just returned to national politics as the Labour member of Parliament (MP) for Makerfield, after spending most of the past decade as a regional mayor. He returned to the House of Commons with the specific aim of challenging Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who gave in to mounting pressure from his own party and resigned on June 22.

Burnham is regarded as being more of a socialist than Starmer, particularly on economic issues.

He will not officially be appointed as prime minister until he is invited to form a government by the monarch, King Charles. This is a formality, as the UK’s parliamentary democracy means that the leader of the party with a majority in the House of Commons is asked to lead the government.

Critics and some within the Labour Party have raised concerns about the manner of Burnham’s return and his sudden rise as Labour leader and as prime minister.

Rise of Reform Rattled Labour

No Labour lawmaker challenged him in a leadership contest, because the party largely united behind him. Former MP Josh Simons stood down from the Makerfield seat to trigger a by-election, with the express intention that party favorite Burnham should return after the party turned against Starmer.

Labour lawmakers were rattled by a disastrous performance at the local elections in May and the rise in the opinion polls of Nigel Farage’s populist Reform Party.

Burnham was popular as the Manchester mayor—he was reelected twice—and was considered Labour’s best hope of turning its fortunes around before the next national election, not due until 2029.

Starmer was Labour’s seventh prime minister and its shortest serving. He led the party to a landslide election victory in July 2024 but spent a little less than two years in Downing Street.

Labour Deputy Leader Lucy Powell paid tribute to Starmer, saying he would be remembered for turning around the fortunes of the party by making it electable, after 14 years of Conservative rule.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announces his resignation to the media outside 10 Downing Street in London, on June 22, 2026. Kin Cheung /AP Photo

Unanimous Backing of Unions

Burnham received the nomination of 379 Labour MPs out of 403—well over the threshold required—and was also backed by all 11 party-affiliated trade unions.

Burnham said he was ready to build on Starmer’s foundation, paying tribute to the outgoing Labour leader, who was not present, having traveled to Ukraine to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on July 16. Starmer and Burnham have previously worked together; Starmer backed Burnham to be party leader in 2015, when he finished runner-up to veteran progressive Jeremy Corbyn.

‘Boldly, Authentically Labour’

Thanking lawmakers for their support, Burnham said: “We are united and we put the power that comes from that unity at the service of people and places who have been waiting too long for politics to let them hope again.”

Watched by an audience of Labour members, which included former party leader Neil Kinnock, Burnham said: “Boldly, confidently, authentically us—Labour. That’s how we win.”

“I will set a direction that is distinctively Labour. We won’t try to out-Green the Greens, or out-Reform Reform, or doing what we’ve done in the past and wear too many Tory clothes,” he said in an apparent reference to long-serving Labour prime minister Tony Blair, who was not spotted in the audience.

Amid speculation over who will be in his top team, particularly in the roles of chancellor, home secretary, and foreign secretary, Burnham said he had not yet made up his mind on whom he would ask to serve.