LONDON (AP) — The moment for Andy Burnham has finally come.After weeks as U.K. prime minister-in-waiting, Burnham will take office on Monday, succeeding the departing Keir Starmer, and Britain’s political turbulence will give way, at least temporarily, to smooth choreography.Burnham will become the seventh U.K. prime minister since 2016 in a now well-rehearsed handover after replacing Starmer as leader of the center-left governing Labour Party on Friday.A spokesperson said Burnham will say in his first speech as prime minister he’s “acutely aware” of how many changes of leader the country has been through in the past decade, and will pledge to restore stability.Starmer said much the same when he took office two years ago. Last month he announced he would resign after missteps and judgment errors that eroded his standing with his party and the public. Burnham was the only candidate in a contest to become the party’s new leader, securing nominations from 379 of the 403 Labour lawmakers in the House of Commons.
On Monday morning Starmer will travel the mile from Downing Street to Buckingham Palace to formally tell King Charles III that he’s resigning. Soon after, Burnham will go to the palace and Charles will ask him to form a government. He will officially become prime minister in a ceremony known as “kissing hands.”The king’s role harkens back to a time when the monarch exercised supreme power and chose a prime minister to run the government. Today, the king has no political power, but the monarch still officially offers the job to the leader of the party that can command a majority in the House of Commons. No hand-kissing is involved.
