Andy Burnham has become Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade, walking into Downing Street with a pledge of relief for the high street in one hand and a small business community bracing for impact on the other.
Buckingham Palace confirmed the appointment on Monday. “His Majesty received in audience the Rt Hon Andrew Burnham MP and requested him to form a new administration,” a spokesman said. “The Rt Hon Andrew Burnham MP accepted The King’s offer and kissed hands upon his appointment as prime minister and first lord of the treasury.”
No actual kissing took place, the phrase being the traditional shorthand for accepting the King’s invitation to form a government. The business community will hope the rest of the new administration’s promises prove less ceremonial.
Burnham’s rise has been remarkably swift. The former Greater Manchester mayor became MP for Makerfield only four weeks ago, took the Labour leadership on Friday following Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation, and now heads a government facing an autumn Budget with precious little room for manoeuvre.
For the owners of Britain’s 5.5 million small firms, the question is not the constitutional choreography but what the new prime minister intends to do with the power he has just acquired.
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