Andy Burnham vows to give people ‘hope back’ as he becomes Labour leader

Andy Burnham has vowed to give people “hope back” and “the Labour they once knew” as he officially became the party’s new leader.

He said he is “ready to lead” as he took the governing party’s reins at a special conference at the Trades Union Congress headquarters in central London on Friday, the final step before replacing Keir Starmer as UK prime minister next week.

In his acceptance speech, Burnham said he would offer “hope” and an end to factionalism in the party.

He said the Labour movement which backed him “heard the call from the people of Makerfield on behalf of forgotten places everywhere up and down this country for a return of the Labour they once knew.”

“And now we answer that call,” he said.

“We will be that version of Labour again.”

He continued: “We are united and we put the power that comes from that unity at the service of people and places who have been waiting too long for politics to let them hope again.

“That’s what we’re going to do, everybody. We’re going to give them hope back.”

The former Greater Manchester mayor returned to Westminster as Makerfield MP last month and gained overwhelming support from Labour MPs to take over from Starmer as party leader after he announced his resignation.

Burnham, who stood in the byelection with the intention of ousting the prime minister, said he wanted to eradicate “infighting”, the “insidious briefing culture” and the “factionalism” that has “bedevilled” the party.

Insisting he had “supported all our Labour leaders in my lifetime”, the new leader said: “We won’t beat Britain’s new right if we are consumed by infighting and pulling in different directions. That is, and always has been, an indulgence that falls heaviest on the people who need Labour most.”

Burnham said he would seek more cross-party consensus, saying that could make political discourse “that little bit less toxic”.

He pledged to “set a direction that is distinctively Labour”, adding: “We won’t try to outgreen the Greens or out-Reform Reform, or doing what we’ve done in the past of wearing too many Tory clothes.”

UK home secretary Shabana Mahmood, in her role as chairwoman of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee, confirmed the results of the leadership contest in which Burnham was backed by 379 of the party’s 403 MPs and all 11 unions affiliated with the party.

Burnham will enter No 10 Downing Street on Monday to become the UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade, with all eyes on his policy agenda and who he will appoint to his Cabinet.

The new Labour leader said his top team would include all parts of the party.

Amid rife speculation about the make-up of his Cabinet, Burnham said: “I haven’t made any decisions yet about who will be in that top team, but I will soon, and when I have, you will see it reflects all parts of our party, all communities, and it will reflect your own place within this great party of ours – a stronger, more united Labour Party lifting up a stronger and more united Britain.”