Andy Burnham Injects New Optimism as He Takes Control of Britain’s Ruling Labour Party

LONDON — Andy Burnham took over as Labour Party leader Friday amid a wave of optimism and the certainty that on Monday he’ll become Britain’s prime minister.The 56-year-old former mayor of Greater Manchester, Britain’s second biggest metropolitan area, buoyed his party’s spirits with an acceptance speech that was long on promises but short on details of how he will reverse the public’s sense of futility after enduring six prime ministers in the last 10 years.“What a moment,” Mr. Burnham exulted after 379 of Labour’s 403 members of Parliament voted him their party leader against no opposition. With a majority in the lower house of Parliament, Labour will have no problem electing him as prime minister. He will succeed the outgoing Keir Starmer, who reached the top two years ago but lost popularity amid dissatisfaction with his failures to stop illegal immigration, reform a flagging economy and buttress defense.Mr. Burnham, with a background in central government positions ranging from health to transportation, has virtually no experience in either foreign affairs or defense. But, he declared, “I’m ready” for whatever it takes to revive the spirits of British voters, who have been disappointed by a succession of prime ministers including five from the Conservative Party — now a diminished force challenged by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.Mr. Burnham has three years remaining in the five-year term that Labour won in 2024, but he could call for early elections to the House of Commons if he thinks he can muster enough support to secure his own mandate despite right-wing criticism of his left-leaning background.Britain’s state-owned British Broadcasting Corporation described Mr. Burnham’s acceptance speech on Friday as “extremely bold,” but he stuck largely to generalities intended to show his determination to push through much needed domestic reforms. “I have a plan,” he assured the cheering party faithful, giving no details. Instead, he elicited applause by saying, “I believe in all of you, and I am confident we can do it.”His audience rose to their feet and cheered as he wound up with the vow: ‘People are looking for us to deliver and we will.”Mr. Burnham’s oratorical exuberance may have been what his followers wanted, but he did not address potential relations with President Trump, whom he has frequently derided in his long career. Nor did he repeat his earlier vows to sharply criticize Israel’s conduct of its wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.Although previously critical of Israel in Gaza, he has declined to accuse Israel of “genocide,” a word bandied about by Labour’s far left, and, while mayor of Manchester, has said that he would like to visit Israel. Carefully choosing diplomacy rather than confrontation, he said while campaigning only that he had “concerns about the disproportionate nature of what has happened in terms of the destruction” in Gaza — a view that he might express politely to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.Mr. Burnham’s relations with Mr. Trump may be tendentious. In an interview with the left-leaning Guardian last month, he defended Mr. Starmer’s refusal to deploy British forces to support the Americans in the war with Iran. “Normally you would want a good relationship with the US, but if you can’t agree with them, then say that as well,” he said. “That’s the only way I think to deal with him.”British conservatives are sure to focus on Mr. Burnham’s inexperience in foreign affairs. “Burnham has become a global laughing stock,” was the headline over a commentary by the Daily Telegraph’s David Blair. “Embassies across London will now be poring over Burnham’s words and sending telegrams home on what his premiership might mean for British foreign policy. He has given them every reason to suspect that he regards diplomacy, certainly in the Middle East, as nothing but an elaborate exercise in placating rival factions of the Labour Party.”So far, said the commentary, Mr. Burnham’s “clumsy signals risk squandering his influence before he has even taken office.”

Andy Burnham Injects New Optimism as He Takes Control of Britain’s Ruling Labour Party

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