Key events
Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Alexandra Topping
Alexandra Topping is a Guardian political correspondent, in Downing Street this morning.
It’s pure theatre outside Downing Street. Journalists from all over the world jostling for space, tripping over each other’s expensive equipment and generally being disgruntled.
It was a bit of scrum getting through security. And there was a telling moment when the police shouted for guests to come forward to the start of the queue. Then as a group approached officers clarified that they were letting in “Mr Starmer’s” guests …
Downing Street staff have come out now, getting ready to hear Keir Starmer’s speech.
James Timpson has resigned as prison minister, the BBC is reporting.
There were reports saying Andy Burnham was planning to tell ministers if they were not going to keep their jobs, giving them the chance to resign rather than be sacked. On Sky News, Beth Rigby is speculating that Burnham might want to give that job to Sally Jameson, the MP for Doncaster Central who is a former prison officer.
Timpson was a surprise appointment when he got the job in 2024. He had no background in Labour politics, but was a prominent liberal on penal policy, famous for running the family shoe company which employs a large number of ex-offenders.
Jenny Chapman, the development minister, is one of Keir Starmer’s most loyal allies. She was one of the small group of friends encouraging him to prepare a leadership bid even before the 2019 election.
Speaking on Sky News this morning, she said he was “reconciled” to leaving office. She said:
I think some of this is to do with his experience before coming into politics… and I think he has perspective in a way that those that have spent our lives, including me, in Westminster and in politics sometimes don’t.
This is a change of power in a country where we do this in a way that’s smooth, respectful, and that’s what you’re seeing today, and I think that he feels that helps him.
The No 10 “podium guy” is out, setting up the lectern.
Prime ministers come and go, even the monarch has changed in recent years, but Larry, the Downing Street cat, does provide some continuity. He has been there since 2011 and he has been on the prowl this morning.
Andy Burnham may see banners urging the government not to allow the proposed Rosebank oil field development in the North Sea as he drives to Buckingham Palace and the No 10 today.
Here is a banner on Whitehall.
And here are protesters outside Buckingham Palace.
Keir Starmer has posted a video on Instagram about his record as PM. He says:
The test of any Prime Minister is: do you leave your country in a better place than you found it?
I’m proud that the answer is yes.
In her interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg yesterday, Lucy Powell, the deputy Labour leader and a prominent Andy Burnham ally, attempted to hose down reports suggesting Burnham would issue new licences for oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.
She said that the Labour manifesto policy (which said “we will not issue new licences to explore new fields”) would still apply. But there might be a “change of emphasis”, she implied. She said:
I think what Andy is talking about is taking a more pragmatic approach and working with the industry to make sure that it can contribute to that transition and to the mix that is needed over the long term. So, let’s see what he’s got to say about that, but I don’t think it’s a change of policy. It’s more a change of emphasis.
This may not go down in Washington. Yesterday Donald Trump posted a message on his Truth Social platform claiming that Burnham would be opening up the North Sea “all the way”.
It was not clear from the post whether this was just routine Trump detachment from reality, or whether this was an intentional misrepresentation designed to give Trump the excuse for his first row with the new UK PM when he discovers that Burnham is not a fossil fuel fanatic.
And, on the subject of the No 10 lectern, Andy Burnham may not be using it when he delivers his speech today, according to the BBC’s Chris Mason. Mason says Burnham is “determined to hit the ground running and, where possible, to maintain the style of leadership he adopted as the mayor of Greater Manchester.”
When Keir Starmer last gave a speech outside Downing Street, on the day he announced he would be resigning, part of his speech was almost drowned out by the sound of the Ode to Joy, the EU anthem, being played in Whitehall by the veteran anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray. Bray had done this several times before to prime ministers speaking from a lectern outside No 10.
But he won’t be doing that today. Yesterday the Metropolitan police put this announcement on social media.
Conditions are in place on Whitehall tomorrow (Monday, 20 July).
Anyone assembling near the Downing Street gates to observe events linked to the new Prime Minister must not use any amplified noise equipment and must stay within the shaded area. These conditions are in place between 10:30 – 13:30.
In response, Bray has set up shop outside Buckingham Palace. But he told the BBC he would not be playing music when Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham head there for their audiences with the king.
Here are some pictures of the media scrum at Downing Street this morning.
Burnham confirms he is planning ‘early moves’ to help people with cost of living
Here are some more lines from Patrick Maguire’s interview with Andy Burnham in the Times today.
Judge me in six, twelve months on whether I’ve lapsed back into that [doing conventional politics]. I’m going to really try not to. Politics needs a bit of a line drawn. What we’ve been doing hasn’t been working. That’s the way I see it. We’ve had a decade of it just not working. Carry on like that or try and do it in a different way. I am going to try and do things in a different way.
You will see early moves to help. It’s all about helping people …
It’s much more about the real show in town, which is that pressure people feel around their finances, and what we heard on the doorstep all over Makerfield: can’t go out for a pint on Friday, can’t go out with the kids, can’t have a holiday, that’s where it is, isn’t it?
You’ve seen what we’ve done with digital ID this morning. That’s an example of what’s to come, freeing up resource from something that, in my view, wouldn’t make a tangible difference to people’s lives anytime soon. And even if it did, it wouldn’t necessarily make life easier, it might do in the long run.
It’s all about what you do, though, isn’t it? There’s no point being here because you’re here. I won’t name names, but I do think I have seen people in parliament, Westminster … they get to something because they want to do that something. They want to be that office holder, and that’s it. I can honestly say that isn’t good enough for me, it really isn’t — just to say I got there. I’ve never been like that. I promise you: it’s what I do with it.
There’s a critique here that is a more sophisticated critique than some people think. I think you have to rethink how we run things to get a different approach to public spending, and to running the economy — more focused on early investment, early intervention, setting people up for success, and much less paying for failure.
It’s where I’ve gone wrong, sometimes in my political career … It’s when I’ve not been true to my instincts. I hate saying it like this, but my instincts are pretty good. And I said it on Friday: I do listen to people.
I’m going to say things about my generation of politicians as not being good enough. I do think a lot of people need to collectively reflect a bit. We’re almost just following the worst patterns of social media.
I’ll try and find common ground with anybody … I will always recognise capable politicians when I see them. I think Kemi is probably much more capable than some of her predecessors. She’s certainly impressive in some ways. And you’ve got to admire Farage’s communication skills.
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He said he had persuaded the No 10 security team to let him carry on attending Everton matches in his own seat in the stands. (He is a season ticket holder.) “I’ve already got a commitment … I can try it, at least,” he said. Keir Starmer is an Arsenal season ticket holder, but when he became PM he was told he had to watch matches from the directors’ box because the police argued they would not be able to keep him safe if watched from the stands. Burnham said this was very important to him because he wanted to be in the stands so he could hear what other people had to say. He said:
I said it on Friday: I do listen to people. That’s where I’ve always picked up my straws in the wind. And that’s my style. I’ve got to find a way of keeping that: sitting in my own seat. It’s actually the best thing I could do. Every game there would be a mega focus group on me.
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He said he had told officials that he was Catholic, and he suggested that meant some Church of England-related decisions might be delegated elsewhere. Burnham no longer attends mass regularly. But, describing what happened when officials asked if he was Catholic, he replied: “My mother would never forgive me if I answered no to that question.”
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He talked about his father, who has dementia and does not appreciate that his son is becoming PM. He also said that his father spent many years trying to persuade his son to back proportional representation. He said:
I don’t think he’s ever realised, because of his condition, that I’ve come round to PR, which is one of his missions — to get me to accept that.
Andy Burnham to become new prime minister and lay out ‘10-year plan’ for the UK in No 10 speech
Good morning. Today we are getting a new PM. It is the sixth time this has happened in just over a decade (Theresa May replaced David Cameron on 13 July 2016), and so in some respects there is nothing very new or surprising about this. Yet the process has been unusual. In the past, when parties in power have replaced a PM, generally they have opted for someone popular with their own MPs, but less popular than their predecessor with the public at large (Liz Truss, Theresa May, Gordon Brown), or for someone more popular with the public, but less liked by their own activists (John Major, Rishi Sunak). At the start of the year, anyone looking at polling would have concluded that the logical choice for Labour would have been to replace Keir Starmer with Andy Burnham. Labour is not always noted for taking decisions that will be electorally beneficial, but in this case that is what it has achieved. It has replaced a PM who had become an electoral millstone with one of the most admired politicians in the country, and with someone – for the moment at least – with his whole party behind him.
That may not be the case by the end of the day, after Burnham has named his cabinet. We’ll have to see. Here is Rowena Mason’s overnight story about what to expect today.
Burnham has given an interview to the Times and, while it does not contain any big new announcements, it is full of intriguing clues as to how he will govern. Two in particular stand out.
First, Burnham said he would be setting out a “10-year plan” for the country. He also told the Times that this was a statement about the scale of his ambitions, not about how long he planned to stay as PM. Patrick Maguire, who interviewed Burnham, said:
This week [Burnham] will tell us of his “ten-year plan for the country”. Perhaps his premiership won’t last that long, he conceded. “I’m not saying that means I’m setting out to say I’m going to be here for ten years … it’s more that we’re not in the right place structurally, we’re not in the right place as a country. I think people can feel that.”
Still, it sounds like Burnham would like to stay for 10 years.
And, second, Burnham dismissed claims that he was an inherent tax raiser. He even suggested that he would like to reverse the freeze in the personal allowance that has functioned as a stealth tax, leading to people paying proportionally more tax every year as their pay goes up but the allowance doesn’t. Burnham told Maguire:
One thing I heard most on the doorsteps in Makerfield was frustration about the personal allowance, frozen at £12,570 … [That complaint] lodged in my mind.
Burnham did not commit to ending the freeze, which would cost billions. But he suggested he was not a kneejerk tax raiser. He told Maguire:
They’re just characterising me as a tax raiser. Well, again, it’s never that simplistic, is it?
Last week Burnham said in an interview he thought he might have to ask people to pay “a little more” in tax.
I will post more from the Times interview shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
11.15am: Keir Starmer gives his final speech from Downing Street, before leaving to tender his resignation to the king.
12.40pm: Andy Burnham arrives in Downing Street where he will give a speech, having been appointed PM by the king at Buckingham Palace.
Afternoon: Burnham appoints his cabinet.
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