UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham launches Number 10 North in Manchester
Andy Burnham, the former Greater Manchester mayor, was confirmed as leader of the Labour Party and sworn in as the United Kingdom’s prime minister, succeeding Keir Starmer, according to The New York Times. AP News reported that King Charles III formally invited him to form a government, making Burnham the country’s seventh prime minister in ten years. In his first days in office, Burnham convened his cabinet and announced a £45-per-year electricity tax cut, a measure AP News said would be funded by scrapping a digital ID plan. He also appointed former defence secretary John Healey as Treasury chief and warned of high public-debt levels and a costly defence-spending target, as detailed by AP News. Deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell told the BBC that Burnham would pursue a bolder agenda while staying within the 2024 manifesto, and CNBC noted that U.
S. President Donald Trump praised Burnham’s North Sea oil policy. Burnham then unveiled a Manchester-based “Number 10 North,” a new office intended to host sections of the Treasury and housing ministries. Al Jazeera reported that Scottish and Welsh leaders questioned the plan’s financing and its impact on devolution, raising political concerns about the initiative.
