Andy Burnham has appeared to rule out calling a snap general election as he replaced Sir Keir Starmer as Britain’s prime minister.
The former mayor of Manchester entered Downing Street on Monday promising his appointment would be a “circuit breaker” for Britain.
He laid out his plan to bring utilities, such as water, “back under stronger public control” to make them more affordable and to advance “the biggest changes” in UK politics in 40 years.
But despite vowing sweeping change, the Labour leader suggested he would not call a general election because he will be sticking to his party’s manifesto pledges.
Mr Burnham told Sky News: “We are in a parliamentary democracy and as we have seen through time, if somebody can command a majority of the MPs in the House of Commons, obviously they then have the legitimacy to lead things forward.
“And I will lead forward consistent with the manifesto, which also talked about change and I want to work on the platform Keir Starmer has left to deliver that change. A massive change in our politics. That is what No 10 North is about.
“Taking the power out of Westminster and Whitehall into every postcode in the land and from there building a new economy.”
Sir Keir led Labour to a landslide victory at the 2024 general election, winning 411 of 650 seats.
But Mr Burnham is under increasing pressure to call another vote after ousting the former PM.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “Andy Burnham cannot be allowed to make the ‘biggest changes in politics for 40 years’ without a mandate. We need a general election now.”
The Conservatives accused Mr Burnham of making “pledges without any plan for delivery” after he said his first policy as prime minister would be to end long-term rough sleeping across the UK.
Shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly said: “In his speech in Downing Street, Burnham promised he would ‘go through that door behind me and issue my first instruction to end rough sleeping in our country’.
“But there is precious little detail on how this will be paid for. Burnham must come clean on what other MHCLG (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) programmes have been salami-sliced to fill the gap.
“In Manchester, Burnham promised to end rough sleeping, but failed because he didn’t do the hard work necessary.
“Now, again, he is making pledges without any plan for delivery. “If he is really serious about Government, he should lay out proposals cut welfare, fund defence and get Britain working again.”
