Andy Burnham has taken office as Britain’s prime minister, the seventh in a decade. On Monday (20 July), Buckingham Palace confirmed that the newly elected Labour Party leader had held a formal audience with King Charles III. Reuters reported that this completed the constitutional process of Burnham succeeding Keir Starmer as prime minister.
In a statement, Buckingham Palace said King Charles III had received Andy Burnham and invited him to form a new government. Burnham accepted His Majesty’s invitation and completed the formalities of his appointment as prime minister. Under British constitutional convention, after a general election the monarch invites the leader who commands majority support in the House of Commons to form a government. The audience with the king is regarded as the final formal step in taking office as prime minister.
In his first address after taking office, Burnham pledged unity, hope and an end to homelessness. “I will give it my very best,” he said toward the end of his speech. “I will put the right values and the right standards at the heart of government.” He added: “Let us build a new spirit of national unity, common purpose and optimism. Let this be the moment when Britain begins to believe in itself again — when we bring back hope.”
Ahead of that call, Burnham committed to ending the suffering of the country’s homeless people as one of his government’s priorities. He said rough sleeping in Britain would be brought to an end, and announced an additional £340 million (about $457 million) to tackle the problem.
The BBC reported that this is not a new promise for Burnham. After becoming mayor of Manchester in 2017, he made a similar pledge to end homelessness in the city. According to local government figures, the number of homeless people in Manchester fell by about half by 2024 compared with 2017, though the number has begun to rise again after reaching its lowest point in 2021. As mayor of Manchester, Burnham also played a personal role in supporting the homeless, regularly donating 15 percent of his salary to charities working on homelessness.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report