New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has invited US President Donald Trump to visit Manchester during their first phone call since entering Downing Street, White House sources have confirmed. According to POLITICO, Trump accepted the invitation.
Phone Call Follows Burnham's First Day in Office
The call took place just hours after Mr Burnham visited Buckingham Palace to meet King Charles III and officially become Prime Minister. Upon returning to Downing Street, the new PM promised to win over voters “fed up with politics” and show the world that the UK can once again be a source of stability.
Mr Burnham used his first speech as Prime Minister to pledge to take power out of Westminster and give the public greater control over “life’s essentials”. Speaking without the lectern used by his predecessors, he said he would set out a ten-year plan later this year, and, starting on Tuesday, measures to address the cost-of-living squeeze and give people “breathing space now”.
Promise to End Rough Sleeping
In his first promise as Prime Minister, he said he would “end rough sleeping in our country”. Just hours before his maiden speech, he visited the homelessness charity The Passage in London’s Victoria.
Mr Burnham, who was met with cheers by supporters in Downing Street, said: “I am acutely conscious that I am the sixth person in the last 10 years to walk up this street, the seventh prime minister since 2016, making this a moment for reflection and new resolution. It requires my generation of politicians to raise our game and rise to the new challenge. Britain needs to show the world that we can regain our stability once again.”
Pledge for Transformation
The Labour leader pledged to “make this moment a circuit breaker for Britain” – the biggest transformation in the last 40 years, with “a new political model and a new economic model”. He said: “We will change politics, to make it more collaborative, more about problem solving than point-scoring, and 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, reindustrialising Britain using public procurement to back British industry.”
He added: “That is the fair and sustainable way to bring the welfare bill down, to meet our fiscal rules, and to honour our commitments on defence to our international partners.” Mr Burnham concluded his speech by urging people to “pull with me” to “build a new national sense of unity, of common purpose and positivity”. “Let us make this the moment when Britain starts to believe again, the moment we bring back hope,” he said.
Trump Invite After Earlier Remarks
The reported invite came after Trump described Burnham as an "extremely liberal" politician who he’d heard was the “mayor of a town”. Mr Burnham became Prime Minister after “kissing hands” with the King – the private ceremony by which he accepted the invitation to form a government. The carefully choreographed handover of power came after Sir Keir Starmer had his own audience with Charles to formally resign.
In his final appearance in Downing Street, Sir Keir said “my work is done” and he was leaving the country “stronger and fairer” than when he took office just two years ago. The speeches by the incoming and outgoing prime ministers were quieter than Sir Keir’s announcement that he would be resigning last month, as a Metropolitan Police ban prevented protesters, including anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray, from playing loud music outside Downing Street to drown out his words.
Cabinet Selection Underway
Among his first tasks is the selection of his new Cabinet. Attention has focused on who he will choose as his chancellor, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood widely seen as the frontrunner. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch sent a letter welcoming the Prime Minister and urging him to commit to spending cuts and rule out tax rises. She also urged him to grant licences for the North Sea’s Rosebank and Jackdaw and overturn the ban on new oil and gas licences. Green Party leader Zack Polanski called on Mr Burnham to impose rent controls, take the water industry into public ownership and introduce wealth taxes.
