{"id":460542,"date":"2026-07-20T17:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T15:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/07\/20\/burnham-e-il-nuovo-primo-ministro-del-regno-unito-e-la-nostra-ultima-chance-di-cambiare\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T18:27:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T16:27:00","slug":"burnham-new-prime-minister-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/07\/20\/burnham-new-prime-minister-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Burnham is the UK\u2019s new Prime Minister: \u201cThis is our last chance to bring about change\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 As of today (20 July), Downing Street No. 10 has a new occupant.\u00a0Following Keir Starmer\u2019s resignation<\/a>\u00a0on 22 June,\u00a0Andy Burnham<\/strong>\u00a0stepped through the doors of the British Prime Minister\u2019s official residence. Aged 56, a Catholic and a former minister and mayor of Manchester from 2017 to 2026, the new leader of the Labour Party inherits a United Kingdom marked by years of political instability in the wake of Brexit. For this reason,\u00a0he has promised to restore\u00a0<\/strong>\u201chope<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0to the British people, as well as\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cunity and stability<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Britain is stronger and fairer than it was two years ago. Our economy is more robust,” said the now former British leader Starmer in his final statement outside 10 Downing Street. \u201cI leave with a sense of calm, I leave with a smile, and I leave proud of everything we have achieved.\u201d A final farewell before the handover. Following the formalisation of Starmer\u2019s resignation at Buckingham Palace in the presence of King Charles III,\u00a0Burnham was summoned immediately afterwards by the royal family to be tasked with forming the new government<\/strong>, in accordance with traditional British constitutional procedure.<\/p>\n

Burnham was elected last Friday (17 July) as leader of the Labour Party, securing overwhelming support from the parliamentary group and the trade unions affiliated to Labour. In the absence of any other candidates, a vote by party members was not required:\u00a0his appointment took place automatically<\/strong>, enabling him to succeed the 63-year-old Starmer as leader of both the party and the government at the end of a\u00a0leadership change anticipated for weeks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Burnham is the eleventh of the last nineteen British prime ministers to take up office at Downing Street<\/strong>\u00a0without having won a general election, a possibility provided for under the UK\u2019s parliamentary system. And, since London\u2019s exit from the EU,\u00a0over the last ten years, the United Kingdom has had seven prime ministers<\/a>, a high turnover of leaders that has eroded public confidence in the institutions.<\/p>\n

Last Friday (17 July), in his speech upon taking office as Labour leader, Burnham said he was \u201cready to govern\u201d and to promote a policy of \u201cchange\u201d in the UK, following \u201c40 years of neoliberalism that have not been kind\u201d to large sections of the population. \u201cThis is our last chance to bring about change<\/strong>,\u201d he said, insisting that he did not wish to follow the agenda of the rising right or of\u00a0Reform UK<\/a>, Nigel Farage\u2019s party. He also called on Labour to unite against \u201cfactionalism,\u201d recalling that he had supported \u201call the party leaders\u201d throughout his political career.<\/p>\n

The new Prime Minister\u2019s priorities include\u00a0support for British citizens struggling with\u00a0<\/strong>“the cost of living<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0and the adoption of measures capable of producing\u00a0<\/strong>\u201ctangible<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0results quickly<\/strong>. In general, Burnham aims to\u00a0restore\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cconfidence in politics<\/strong>,” while acknowledging that he is \u201cacutely aware\u201d of taking the helm of the government as the seventh prime minister in ten years, in a country where political stability now seems a thing of the past.<\/p>\n

Today (20 July), in his first speech outside 10 Downing Street, the former mayor of Manchester outlined his government\u2019s priorities: \u201cBritain must show the world that it can regain its stability: that is the challenge before us.\u201d The new Prime Minister assured that there is \u201ca long-term plan\u201d\u00a0to improve the country over the next\u00a0<\/strong>\u201c10 years<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>He also ruled out the possibility of a snap election, as advocated by Farage: \u201cWe live in a parliamentary democracy\u201d and whoever \u201ccan secure a majority of MPs in the House of Commons obviously has the legitimacy to lead the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was no shortage of congratulatory messages from European leaders. \u201cCongratulations, dear Andy Burnham, on your appointment as Prime Minister. I look forward to working with you to strengthen the EU-UK partnership.\u00a0For the security of our shared continent<\/strong>. And for the prosperity of the people on both sides of the Channel,\u201d\u00a0writes on X<\/a>\u00a0the President of the European Commission,\u00a0Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>.\u00a0The President of the European Council<\/a>\u00a0Antonio Costa, expressed his hope to \u201ccontinue to strengthen further\u00a0our cooperation<\/strong>\u00a0for the benefit of our citizens and our businesses. The UK and the European Union are stronger together.\u201d\u00a0Congratulations and best wishes for success also from the Italian Prime Minister,\u00a0Giorgia Meloni<\/strong>. “Italy and the United Kingdom are bound by a deep friendship and a partnership that, over the years, has grown ever stronger, thanks in part to our joint work on issues of fundamental importance to our nations,\u201d she\u00a0pointed out<\/a>. \u201cI am certain that we will continue along this path, strengthening our strategic partnership in the interests of our nations and our citizens,\u201d she added, extending \u201csincere thanks\u201d to her predecessor Keir Starmer \u201cfor the work he has done and for the commitment with which he has helped to make the relationship between Italy and the United Kingdom even stronger”.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former minister and former mayor of Manchester from 2017 to 2026, a Catholic aged 56, the new leader of the Labour Party is the seventh prime minister in ten years\u2014a sign of significant political instability in the UK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7896,"featured_media":460518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25712,25707],"tags":[27755,34970,28418,34971,28390,27638,27637],"class_list":["post-460542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","category-world-politics","tag-andy-burnham","tag-party-laburist-british-en","tag-downing-street","tag-nigel-farage-and-2","tag-uk-en-2","tag-kingdom-united-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460542"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460549,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460542\/revisions\/460549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}