Britain is getting its seventh prime minister in a decade, and, once again, nobody had to vote for it. Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, will be invited by King Charles III to form a government on Monday, replacing Keir Starmer just two years after Labour’s landslide election win.
How does Burnham become the UK’s prime minister without general elections?
Burnham is the sole candidate who managed to get sufficient backing from the Labour MPs to become the new leader, getting support from the overwhelming majority of their about 400-strong parliamentary group.
Burnham officially took office as the new leader at a party conference, attended by the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, who even offered her congratulations and hinted at her intentions to join the future cabinet.
In his first speech as the Labour leader, Burnham made five commitments: to stop Labour bickering, create a “new kind of politics”, cooperate with other parties, lead for “everywhere” in the country, and move powers from Westminster.
Starmer officially resigned from his post of the Labour leader on June 22, which happened less than two years after he got that job. It was characterised by his numerous mistakes, such as the appointment of an ambassador linked to the late Jeffrey Epstein.
Labour’s poor performance in May’s local election made Starmer’s situation unsustainable, and even more so after Burnham won a special parliamentary by-election in Makerfield.
In contrast to the US presidential system, in the British parliamentary system, the ruling party can change its leadership and thus the prime minister without any voting across the country.
Starmer will resign from King Charles III on Monday, and the king will then appoint Burnham to form the government.
There won’t be a general election in Britain until 2029, and four out of the six prime ministers in the recent past in Britain have taken their posts this way.
Burnham has refused to say who he will choose for his cabinet, only that he is “finalising” his picks before an announcement on Monday. The Conservative Party is demanding that he submit himself to parliamentary investigation right away, and the Liberal Democrat and the Green parties have shown some readiness to cooperate.
