LONDON (AP) 鈥� will officially become leader of Britain鈥檚 governing Labour Party on Friday, clearing his final hurdle to taking office as prime minister next week.
The center-left party will announce the result of a leadership contest to replace departing , in which Burnham was the only contender. He had 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 for weeks, but he has revealed little detail about his policy priorities. After for a seat in Parliament a month ago, he pledged to build a politics 鈥渂ased on unity and hope鈥� and an economy that spreads growth evenly across the country.
He has held no press conferences and given few interviews, and will arrive in Downing Street largely unknown to voters outside Manchester.
Burnham brings a more relaxed style of leadership than the rather stern Starmer, and is regarded as one of the Labour Party鈥檚 best communicators. But he faces as his predecessor, including a sluggish economy, a cost-of-living squeeze fueled by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and .
Burnham’s office says he plans to sketch out some of his priorities Friday in his first speech as Labour leader, and will say that he will have the 鈥渃ourage to fix the big things that politics has neglected.鈥�
He鈥檒l highlight plans to focus on economic renewal, more public control of key sectors and creating new modern industrial jobs, arguing that Britain took 鈥渁 series of wrong turns in the 1980s鈥� when 鈥減olitical power was centralized and economic power privatized.鈥�
That鈥檚 the decade when Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher oversaw policies of privatization, deindustrialization and political centralization that transformed the U.K. economy.
In a social media video posted late Thursday, Burnham said he also would make a priority of tackling the patchy access to social care for those who need it because of age, illness or disability. It鈥檚 a pressing issue in a country with an aging population, and one that has foxed previous Labour and Conservative governments.
Starmer announced last month that he would resign after in office marred by missteps and judgment errors that eroded his standing with his party and the public.
Labour regularly trails behind anti-immigration party in opinion polls, and the governing party had catastrophic results in local elections in May, triggering pressure on Starmer to step down that he couldn鈥檛 resist.
He will remain prime minister until Monday, when he formally tenders his resignation to . The king will then ask Burnham to form a government.
Britain鈥檚 parliamentary democracy allows governing parties to change leaders, and thus prime ministers, without the need for a general election. The next national election doesn鈥檛 have to be held until 2029.
New prime ministers have come with increasing frequency in recent years. Burnham will be since 2016.
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