The new Labour leader, Andy Burnham, will take over from Sir Keir Starmer today after winning the support of the party’s MPs.
Burnham, the seventh prime minister in the last 10 years, became Labour leader last Friday.
The process
The process will begin today with Sir Keir meeting King Charles to formally offer his resignation as prime minister.
The King will meet Burnham soon afterwards, when he will ask him to form a government. Once Burnham has accepted, he will officially be the UK’s prime minister.
Both meetings usually happen at Buckingham Palace.
Burnham will then head to Downing Street, where he is likely to give a speech outside No 10.
How Starmer lost public support
Starmer won a landslide general election victory two years ago – but he began losing public support within weeks of arriving in Downing Street after a series of policy mis-steps and U-turns.
The final straw for many Labour MPs was when right-wing party Reform UK swept the board at local elections in May, leaving many of them fearing Reform leader Nigel Farage would win the next general election.
How Burnham emerged as PM
Burnham had long had ambitions to be Labour leader – but could only challenge for the top job as a sitting MP.
He returned to Parliament a month ago in a by-election, with his victory over the Reform candidate convincing many Labour MPs he was the right candidate to replace Sir Keir.
Other senior Labour figures – such as former health secretary Wes Streeting – abandoned their own leadership ambitions and got behind Burnham, along with the overwhelming majority of the party’s MPs.
It has meant he has become the Labour leader without a contest.
In the UK, prime ministers are not directly elected, unlike United States or French presidents – they are the leaders of the party with the most MPs in the House of Commons.
This means the UK can change prime ministers without an election – something that has happened with increasing frequency in recent years.
Burnham could call a general election when he takes over as prime minister, but appears to have ruled that out.
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Burnham has said he will stick broadly to the policies that Labour was elected on in 2024 – in particular not raising the main rates of income tax, VAT or National Insurance.
But he has also begun to set out some policy plans of his own.
A key priority will be to hand more power to councils and authorities away from Parliament. That would involve giving them more control in areas such as housing and transport.
As part of that he wants to create another No 10 team more than 150 miles north of London, based in Manchester.
Burnham has also given clues around his welfare, social care, immigration and defence plans – and suggested a wealth tax could be on the cards – but in many areas he hasn’t announced specific policies.
He’ll also need to appoint key roles in his cabinet, such as chancellor, home secretary and foreign secretary.
Discussions are underway for his cabinet members.
He has already appointed James Purnell, a close friend and ally from his last stint in government, to the key backroom role of chief of staff. And former transport secretary Louise Haigh, who ran Burnham’s by-election campaign, is also likely to be given a role as a minister in his Downing Street operation.
But the most intense focus has been on who he will appoint as chancellor to replace Rachel Reeves.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband was long thought to be the most likely candidate, but Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has now emerged as the frontrunner.
Handing out cabinet jobs is always a balancing act between ensuring the different wings of the party are represented and securing a gender balance in the top team. An all-male line-up in the major cabinet roles would not be a good look.
Burnham is married to Marie-France van Heel. They met while they were students at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge, in 1989.
They have been together for more than 30 years and married since the early 2000s.
Van Heel has worked in marketing and strategy for many years, notably for Sky, and has also been involved in the logo designs for the BBC and England Rugby.
The couple have three children – Jimmy, Rosie and Annie.
He studied English at the University of Cambridge and first worked in journalism before moving into politics in his early 20s.
He became an MP for the first time in 2001 and held cabinet roles in former prime minister Gordon Brown’s government, before eventually standing down as an MP in 2017.
During that time, he twice ran for the Labour leadership – he lost on both occasions.
