Andy Burnham Sworn In as UK Prime Minister, Delivers First Speech Vowing a Rebuilt Economy

Since Andy Burnham won the uncontested Labour leadership race on Friday, July 17, the only question was how fast the formal handover would happen. It happened fast. On Monday, July 20, Keir Starmer traveled to Buckingham Palace to resign, and Burnham followed shortly after to be asked by King Charles III to form a government.

Burnham is now the UK's seventh prime minister in barely a decade, according to NPR Illinois. That churn dates back to the 2016 Brexit vote, which NPR notes "ultimately shrank the British economy, triggered anger at the governing class and contributed to a revolving door of prime ministers."

Burnham's First Words as PM

Standing outside 10 Downing Street, Burnham didn't sugarcoat Labour's record. "I want to be honest with you: We have not been good enough, and we need to be better," he said, according to NPR Illinois. "We will be."

He framed his arrival in bigger terms than a routine leadership swap. "We will make this moment a circuit breaker for Britain, bringing forward a new political model and a new economic model," Burnham said, according to CNBC. He promised to "build a new economy where we put life's essentials back under stronger public control to make them affordable again, reindustrializing Britain using public procurement to back British industry."

Burnham has already floated nationalizing part of Thames Water and scrapping Starmer's digital ID plan on day one, moves this outlet has covered separately. Combined with Monday's speech, the pattern points toward a government that wants the state's hands directly on utilities, industry and infrastructure, a sharp turn from Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves's fiscal-discipline approach.

Starmer's Exit

Starmer used his final Downing Street address to defend his 6.5 years leading the party and two years running the country. "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," he said, according to NPR Illinois. He called the premiership "the privilege of my life" and insisted Britain was "stronger and fairer" than when he took office. "I go with good grace, I go with a smile, and I go proud of everything we have achieved," he said.

Starmer's own account deserves to be heard on its own terms. But the numbers that pushed him out are difficult to dispute. NPR Illinois reports Labour lost seats to a populist anti-immigration party in May's local elections, and enough of Starmer's own MPs turned on him afterward that he resigned as party leader on June 22. His approval ratings had sunk, and voters, per NPR, believed he'd failed to deliver visible change. The Peter Mandelson affair, where Starmer appointed a friend of the late Jeffrey Epstein as ambassador to Washington before firing him, didn't help.

Trump's Truth Social Broadside

Hours before the handover, Trump posted a lengthy message on Truth Social that had nothing kind to say about the country Burnham now runs. He called Britain a "Poverty Stricken Disaster," according to CNBC and the Daily Express, while claiming it has the potential to become "one of the Richest Countries anywhere in the World."

His reasoning: North Sea oil. Trump praised Burnham for supposedly committing to "opening up, all the way, the invaluable North Sea Oil," per the Express, and claimed Aberdeen residents were "dancing in the streets" over it. He also took a swing at wind power, saying "word is" the UK plans to remove turbines near Aberdeen, though he offered no details or source for that claim, the Express reported.

Burnham hasn't actually announced a full North Sea opening. The Express is explicit that this is "something the new Labour leader hasn't yet done." Trump is describing a policy commitment that doesn't exist yet in Burnham's own public statements, at least not as sweeping as Trump characterized it.

There's a legitimate economic case for expanding UK oil and gas production. Independent estimates gathered by Parliament suggest new drilling could unlock up to 7.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent, and high energy costs are a genuine drag on UK growth, with G