New U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham was set to hold his first Cabinet meeting Tuesday after ousting his predecessor’s loyalists, vowing a 10-year plan to ease cost-of-living pressures and signaling a shift to the left.
He immediately got to work after replacing Keir Starmer in Downing Street, holding separate calls with U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy before appointing his ministerial team.
Burnham, 56, pledged to reindustrialize Britain and decentralize power as well as end sleeping rough on the streets after he met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace to become the head of government following Starmer's departure.
The monarch's fourth prime minister since he acceded to the throne in 2022 – and Britain's seventh in just over a decade – Burnham said the country needed to show the world it could "regain stability."
Accompanied by his wife Marie-France van Heel, Burnham was greeted in Downing Street by resounding applause from supporters, including his mother.
