Andy Burnham set to become Labour leader before taking over as UK PM

Andy Burnham is set to be announced as the Labour Party's new leader on Friday. The Makerfield MP is scheduled to be unveiled at a special press conference before taking over as the UK's seventh prime minister in a decade on Monday. Burnham was left with a clear path to Downing Street after his last potential leadership rival ruled out challenging last week. He received 379 nominations from Labour MPs for the party leadership out of a possible 403. Burnham is expected to deliver a speech on Friday where he will reportedly pledge to be "unashamedly Labour" and vow that his government will have the "courage to fix the big things that politics has neglected." His uncontested run has sparked concern from some analysts and government insiders, and opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has accused Labour of "running scared" of scrutiny. It comes after Keir Starmer announced he was stepping down as PM last month, as pressure continued to build in the wake of Labour's disastrous local election results in May.

Who is Andy Burnham?

Born on Merseyside in the northwest of England and raised in the village of Culcheth in Cheshire, Burnham has said he was first inspired to enter politics after watching "Boys From The Blackstuff," an acclaimed 1982 TV show about five unemployed men in Liverpool navigating life in Margaret Thatcher's Britain. He went on to study English at the University of Cambridge before starting out in journalism, working for a number of trade publications. He soon made the jump into politics, however, taking a job as a researcher for the late Tessa Jowell, a former MP for Dulwich while in his early 20s. He eventually became MP for Leigh in 2001, a position he held until 2017. He also served in a number of senior ministerial positions, including as secretary of state for health and chief secretary to the Treasury. In 2017, he took over as mayor of Greater Manchester. Burnham returned to Westminster in June after securing a huge majority in the Makerfield by-election, comfortably beating out challengers from Nigel Farage's Reform UK party and Rupert Lowe's hard-right Restore Britain. Since his return, Burnham has repeatedly touted the need for change in British politics and has focused on the idea of devolution, pledging to help power flow into other parts of the UK through a "No. 10 North." He has also said he would put an end to trickle-down economics and neoliberalism and embark on "the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period." Looking to Europe, Burnham has previously called for the UK to rejoin the European Union, but he sought to soften his stance on the issue during his Makerfield campaign. "My view is that Brexit has been damaging," he said in May. "But I also believe the last thing we should do right now is rerun those arguments".