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title:  King of The North- Andy Burnham Becomes Britain's Seventh Prime Minister in a Decade, Promising to 'Rewire' the Nation
description: Keir Starmer resigned on Monday, less than two years after a landslide election win. Andy Burnham, the former Manchester mayor known as the King of the North...
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-07-20T15:09:17.338Z
updated: 2026-07-20T15:11:34.211Z
canonical: https://www.richmanmagazine.com/article/king-of-the-north-andy-burnham-becomes-britain-s-seventh-prime-minister-in-a-decade-promising-to-rew
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-detailed-view-of-the-ornate-gold-and-black-iron-gate-at-buck-1560102.jpg
categories: Politics
content_type: News
region: United Kingdom
publication: Sovereign Magazine
access: members
schema_type: Article
---

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Keir Starmer left Downing Street on Monday the same way he arrived there two years ago, promising the country he had left it better than he found it. 'My work is done,' he told the crowd outside Number 10, before travelling to Buckingham Palace to formally tender his resignation to King Charles III. 'I go with good grace, I go with a smile, and I go proud of everything we have achieved.' Minutes later, Andy Burnham made the same journey in the other direction, was received by the King, and became Britain's seventh prime minister in a decade.

The handover was constitutionally unremarkable and politically significant at the same time. Britain does not elect its prime minister directly. It elects members of Parliament, and whoever commands a majority among them, as leader of the governing party, gets the job. When Labour's own MPs decided Starmer had become a liability rather than an asset, the party could replace him without ever going back to the country, and it did exactly that, nominating Burnham unopposed with backing from 379 of Labour's 403 MPs.

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