Andy Burnham is declared leader of Britain's Labour Party, will become prime minister on Monday

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 7:15 AM EDT, July 17, 2026


LONDON (AP) — Andy Burnham was officially declared leader of Britain’s governing Labour Party on Friday, clearing his final hurdle to taking office as prime minister next week.

The center-left party announced the result of a leadership contest to replace departing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in which Burnham was the only contender.

The announcement was a forgone conclusion after he secured nominations from 379 of the 403 Labour lawmakers in the House of Commons as of Thursday night.

Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, has been prime minister-in-waiting for weeks, but he has revealed little detail about his policy priorities. He will arrive in Number 10 Downing Street largely unknown to voters outside Manchester.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/andy-burnham-uk-labour-party-leadership-eba3703e98f3f9790f74f2cd7ee4cee1

[FakeNoose]

1. Manchester is a major city - it's like the US electing the mayor of Chicago as president

He sounds like a progressive leader too.

From the OP link:

Burnham brings a more relaxed style of leadership than the rather stern Starmer, and is regarded as one of the Labour Party’s best communicators. But he faces many of the same problems as his predecessor, including a sluggish economy, a cost-of-living squeeze fueled by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and overstretched public services.

Burnham began sketching out some of his priorities in his first speech as Labour leader, and will say that he will have the “courage to fix the big things that politics has neglected,” his office said.

He will highlight plans to focus on economic renewal, more public control of key sectors and creating new modern industrial jobs, arguing that Britain took “a series of wrong turns in the 1980s” when “political power was centralized and economic power privatized.”

- more at link -

Good luck Mr. Burnham!

[mopinko]

2. no mention of jews murdered in the streets.

[angrychair]

3. I guess we will see

The UK seems like a police state right now. Seems like every aspect of daily life is being monitored and inspected. Cameras everywhere and police monitor your emails and social media and what you say.

Coming to a state near you.

[Smilo]

4. it's already here

and sadly many other countries around the world spy on the everyday citizen...... NSA in the US, GCHQ in the UK, CSIS in Canada, can intercept phone calls, text messages, and emails.
Add to this the tech giants Google, Meta, etc allowing access to data info for the government.
And then there are the flock cameras and face recognition software - think of all the stores you go in and are monitored, it's not just the stores.

[yardwork]

5. Um.....