Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, has been elected the new leader of the Labour Party at a special meeting held at the TUC headquarters in London, securing the role without any opposing candidates. His victory marks the succession of Keir Starmer, who had announced his resignation as party chief and British Prime Minister in June. Burnham is scheduled to be officially commissioned by King Charles III on Monday to form the government.
The newly elected Labour leader called on his party to unite and pledged a new policy direction. “We must admit that this generation of politicians-myself included-has failed to question a political culture and economic model that simply does not work well enough for ordinary people,” he stated. “Because the decades of neoliberalism, which began in the 1980s, have not benefited the areas that made our party great, nor the communities in the rural and coastal regions of Great Britain. That is why we promise them today that we will do better.”
Burnham recently resumed membership in the British House of Commons, having previously served there from 2001 to 2017. He served as the mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017 to 2026. Earlier in his career, between 2007 and 2010, he held several positions within the cabinet of then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
