Britain’s New Prime Minister Andy Burnham Promises ‘Stronger Public Control’ of Stagnating Economy

The United Kingdom has yet another prime minister after Andy Burnham was appointed to the position by King Charles on Monday morning. He is the seventh prime minister in the last decade.

Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, whose nickname is the “King of the North,” was elected as the leader of the Labour Party on Friday, just four weeks after being parachuted back into Parliament at the Makerfield special election.

Burnham has long wanted to be the Labour leader, having put himself forward twice before for the job. However, he was only able to challenge Keir Starmer as a sitting member of Parliament (M.P.) after the former prime minister announced his resignation less than a month ago. With other potential replacements bowing out of the race, Burnham was able to become Labour leader, and by consequence, British prime minister, without a contest. Partly for this reason, little is known about how he will govern.

Still, his acceptance speech after becoming leader of the Labour Party outlined some of his political vision. The M.P. promised to be “pro-business,” “problem-solving rather than point-scoring,” and “authentically…Labour.” He seemed to signal that he would pursue a more interventionist, decentralizing, and explicitly post-Thatcherite government.

On Monday, upon becoming prime minister, Burnham promised “a new political model and a new economic model,” and railed against former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s free market reforms.

“In the 1980s, Britain took some wrong turns. Political power was centralized. Economic power privatized. Large parts of the country de-industrialized, and they still haven’t recovered,” he said. “Many feel as though they’re still in decline and they don’t have the ability to turn things around. And that’s why we will change politics to make it more collaborative, more about problem-solving than point-scoring.”

“We will take power out of here and carry it into every postcode in the land so that they can do more. And in doing more, build a new economy where we put life’s essentials back under stronger public control to make them affordable to you again, reindustrializing Britain using public procurement to back British industry.”

This call for more government control was expected. During his acceptance speech on Friday, he asked: “If we don’t have sufficient public control over the cost of the essentials, how can we have control over inflation, public spending, and the rest of the economy?” Although there are no specific details of what this greater “control” could look like, he has previously said that the nationalization of Thames Water—which provides water to London and the surrounding region—”is absolutely an option.” However, a group of Thames Water creditors is prepared to threaten legal action if nationalization is pursued.

Burnham has also promised a whole-of-government strategy to address homelessness. “I will soon go through that door behind me and issue my first instruction: to end rough sleeping in our country,” Burnham said on Monday. He made a similar pledge as mayor of Manchester, where he vowed to end rough sleeping by 2020. Millions of pounds of taxpayer cash were spent on his “A Bed Every Night” program. Instead, official numbers of homelessness rose in four consecutive years, and more than doubled from 2021 to 2025. Perhaps “stronger public control” is not the solution here, but speeding up the construction of private housing.

There was also speculation that Burnham would announce plans for new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, drawing praise from U.S. President Donald Trump on Truth Social: “The People of Aberdeen, in Scotland, are dancing in the streets because the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has stated that he will be opening up, all the way, the invaluable North Sea Oil!” However, the Financial Times reported that the ban on new licenses would remain in place, with Deputy Labour Leader Lucy Powell describing the government’s approach as a “change of emphasis” on North Sea oil and gas.

Not all of what we know so far of Burnham’s policies appears to be big government. Over the weekend, he said he would scrap Starmer’s digital ID program, which would have created a centralized government database linking people’s identities to verified personal information and their access to public services. Big Brother Watch warned of the “serious privacy and security risks” associated with the government’s proposal to introduce mandatory digital ID, and #Together said such a move would turn Britain into a “Papers Please” country. A Burnham spokesperson told the BBC that the “time and resource that was going to be spent on a national ID scheme will go instead to where it’s most needed, such as helping with the cost of living.”

Burnham has also signaled that he won’t introduce a wealth tax immediately. However, his promises to increase government control in the economy suggest that the associated costs will be found somewhere, and tax rises and increased government borrowing are likely to be a part of that.

Of course, more borrowing and higher taxes are unlikely to fix the largest issue that Burnham needs to address: The British economy, which grew by a meager 0.6 percent in the first quarter of this year (embarrassing compared to the U.S.’ 2.1 percent). Twenty-five percent of working-age people are out of work, and those who are working are set to pay the highest tax burden in British history. Youth unemployment is soaring, with the number of young people aged 16 to 24 who are NEETs (Not in Employment, Education, or Training) increasing to 13.5 percent—more than one million people—in the first quarter of this year. Consequently, Britain is now poorer than America’s poorest state.

Andy Burnham enters No. 10 with Britain in a dire state, driven by years of increases in public spending, tax hikes, and crippling red tape. Given his promise to increase government control, there is little reason to believe he will turn the tide.