Standing outside Downing Street on Monday, Burnham said Britain needs to show the world it can regain its stability again, and that politics has to start working better for people. He said he's acutely aware of being the sixth person in a decade to walk up that same street as a new leader, the seventh prime minister since 2016, and that he'd taken the job with zero rivals standing against him. And he didn't dodge the obvious problem either, telling the crowd flatly that things haven't been good enough and admitting his government needs to be better. Burnham promised what he called a circuit breaker for Britain, with a new political model and a new economic model built into his first year. His government's already committed an extra 340 million pounds toward tackling rough sleeping, and he said ending it outright would be his very first instruction once he steps inside. He also plans to announce fresh cost of living measures within the week. Odd, for a man untested by any real leadership contest, he sounded awfully sure of himself.
Burnham took over from Keir Starmer, who left after barely two years marked by public discontent and a string of policy reversals. Starmer had used a lectern once owned by former prime minister Rishi Sunak during his own victory speech back in 2024. And unlike Starmer, Burnham became Labour leader and then prime minister without facing a single televised debate or party hustings.Critics say he still hasn't explained how he plans to pay for any of it.
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