By Jill Lawless London — New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham gathered his cabinet for its first meeting on Tuesday and vowed to take a “one-team approach” despite purging allies of predecessor Keir Starmer from the government.Burnham told his top team that he would lead a “cost-of-living government” focused on easing the economic burden felt by millions of people.“We need to think every day, what can we do just to take that little bit of pressure off people’s shoulders, to give them that little extra sense that help is coming, so they can have that bit of hope that things are getting better,” Burnham told the cabinet.Burnham made a small down payment on that pledge by announcing a tax cut on energy bills that will save the average household about £45 a year. The cut will take effect October 1, Burnham said, with the funding coming from scrapping a plan for digital ID cards announced by Starmer.The former mayor of Greater Manchester entered Downing St on Monday after replacing Starmer as leader of the governing Labour Party, becoming Britain’s seventh prime minister since 2016. Starmer resigned just two years after winning a landslide election victory, forced out by his own party after a series of missteps and U-turns.In his first speech as prime minister, Burnham pledged to ease the cost of living, decentralise political power, revitalise industry and end street sleeping by homeless people — a tall order, especially given Britain’s sluggish economic growth in recent years.Burnham acknowledged at the cabinet meeting that the government would have to make difficult financial decisions and “take a really hard look at what our priorities are”.Loyalists removedAfter taking office on Monday, Burnham set about remaking the government in his image.Starmer’s finance minister, Rachel Reeves, was ousted and replaced by John Healey, a former defence secretary who resigned in June and accused the Treasury of failing to spend enough on the military at a time of rising threats. In an interview after he quit, Healey called the Treasury “a dead hand on dynamic government” and “in denial”.Healey has said defence spending, due to be 2.6% of GDP next year, should rise to 3% by 2030. Now he will have to find the money.Wes Streeting, whose resignation as health secretary in May helped topple Starmer, took over the defence portfolio.Other key cabinet appointees include foreign secretary Ed Miliband, housing secretary Angela Rayner and business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, who has an expanded brief that includes innovation and science.Louise Haigh, a key Burnham ally who helped engineer his rise to the top, was named first secretary of state and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, effectively the deputy prime minister.Home secretary Shabana Mahmood, who has overseen contentious rules designed to reduce immigration, kept her job.Burnham has huge support from the party, desperate for a new leader to reverse the party’s decline in popularity under Starmer. But there was some grumbling after Burnham removed several of Starmer’s senior ministers from the government, including ex-deputy prime minister David Lammy, former business secretary Peter Kyle and Starmer’s chief secretary, Darren Jones.Challenges loomBurnham has little experience of foreign policy and faces a stack of challenges, including wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and managing relations with US President Donald Trump, who first warmed to Starmer before souring on him.Burnham’s office said he spoke to Trump in one of his first calls as prime minister and “underlined his commitment to defence and security”. Trump posted on social media that the two men had “a very good conversation” and would be “meeting in the not-too-distant future for topics of mutual interest”.The prime minister also spoke to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and leaders of the EU and NATO.Burnham told Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte that putting former defence chief Healey in charge of the nation’s finances “was a signal of his intent”.In a reminder of the growing international tensions Britain faces, a Russian warship carried out a live-fire weapons exercise in the English Channel on Monday, the day Burnham took office.The ministry of defence said the frigate Neustrashimy was being shadowed by the Royal Navy when it conducted the exercise in international waters about 74km south of Plymouth in southwest England.“The Royal Navy monitored that exercise throughout, continues to track the vessel’s activity closely and stands ready to protect UK national security,” the defence ministry said.Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russian warships always acted “in strict accordance” with international and maritime law.Asked whether the Russian government felt relations with the UK would improve under the new prime minister, Peskov said it had “no such hopes”.