New Prime Minister Andy Burnham phones Trump and Zelensky, sends the markets into a flutter and selects his ministers

The changing of the guard ceremony at Downing Street concluded around lunchtime; the outgoing British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, gave a brief, good-natured speech, went to Buckingham Palace, resigned, and shortly afterwards his replacement and successor, Andy Burnham – ‘Mr Nice Guy’, as he is known – arrived, having orchestrated a ‘bloodless coup’ that was, in truth, not very nice at all. A long embrace for his mother (his father has Alzheimer’s; “he’ll never know I’ve become Prime Minister”, Burnham said in an interview with The Times published on the eve of his appointment), a firm handshake with his wife Marie-France, a speech inspired by unity, the poorest members of society, building a country that works for everyone, and funding for the homeless – just as he had done in his native Manchester – and then off he went, into the palace: let’s get started. 

Burnham’s first phone call to a foreign leader was to Donald Trump, who had praised him over the weekend – a very rare occurrence – because he is convinced that the next Prime Minister will open up the North Sea to oil and gas exploration, a pet project of Trump’s over which he had already clashed with Starmer. It is unclear whether Burnham is actually in favour of drilling (things are still rather muddled with this Prime Minister); this is still mere speculation, but he certainly did not discuss it with Trump – in fact, he invited him to Manchester, and the American President was pleased about this. Manchester will also host the next G20 summit in 2027. Burnham wants his North to be put on the map, but that’s not all: ‘We’ll be in every postcode across the Kingdom,’ he said.

Burnham also telephoned the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky – who is himself grappling with a painful cabinet reshuffle – and assured him of the support that London has consistently provided to date in defending against Russian aggression. Then began the process of forming a government, which in the UK always follows the same, brutal script: serving ministers resign, new ones are summoned, and the comings and goings of those promoted and sacked take place in front of the cameras on the narrow, crowded Downing Street (sometimes a letter is enough for a resignation, sometimes a social media post; sometimes those sacked leave through side doors to avoid being seen). Rachel Reeves, who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Starmer, immediately announced that she would not be part of the new government: she was offered another senior post – reportedly the Ministry of Defence – but turned it down. It was clear that Burnham would choose someone else; economic issues cast a shadow over any government, and the new Prime Minister faces the problem of not being perceived as reassuring: he said very little about helping the homeless (with a funding allocation for which there is no backing) and about fiscal discipline becoming ‘flexible’ – remarks that were not well received by the markets, which immediately grew impatient. The markets’ impatience is often exaggerated, but the spectre of Liz Truss – the prime minister who lasted 45 days in 2022 and caused share prices and the pound to plummet with her reckless initiatives – has not yet faded.

In any case, the first to enter Downing Street was John Healey, a former Defence Secretary who had resigned in protest against Starmer and Reeves, who, in his view, had failed to allocate the necessary resources to counter existing threats. He was followed by Ed Miliband – regarded as the mastermind behind Starmer’s downfall and Burnham’s rise – and Shabana Mahmood, currently Home Secretary, where she has faced heavy criticism for her restrictive immigration policy. In recent days, Mahmood had been tipped to become Chancellor of the Exchequer, but it was John Healey – who had served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Treasury under Gordon Brown – who was the first to be appointed (as tradition dictates, though rumours have often proved more accurate in recent times) to manage the British economy. Aged sixty-six and a former trade unionist, Healey has blended his background with Blairism, and his appointment came as a surprise because the former Defence Secretary had made it clear that the country needed far greater investment in defence than that envisaged by Starmer; and if this remains his priority, it remains to be seen how Burnham intends to carry out his revolution ‘for everyone’: resources are, as is well known, limited.

Healey is recognised for her experience and credibility, something that was not the case for Ed Miliband, who also wanted to be Chancellor: instead, he was appointed Foreign Secretary, and once again he will have to put up with the sighs of many who had hoped, for a moment, that his brother David would be chosen for this post, as he has extensive experience in international and humanitarian affairs – in contrast, Ed Miliband, in 2013, rejected the mission sought by the then Prime Minister Cameron against the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, which had used chemical weapons against its own people. Barack Obama, then US President, witnessed the clash in London and decided to seek congressional approval as well, and so Assad went unpunished.

After much discussion and controversy, Shabana Mahmood remains at the Home Office: Labour’s immigration strategy is changing, and Burnham is evidently happy with that.