Andy Burnham becomes the UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade after Starmer resigns
Daily Briefing - World
Trending
LONDON -- Andy Burnham took office Monday as Britain's new prime minister, promising a 10-year plan to restore political stability and revive the economy while acknowledging that six other U.K. leaders have tried and failed to do so in the past decade.
Speaking outside 10 Downing St. minutes after being formally appointed by King Charles III, Burnham pledged to ease the cost of living for ordinary people, decentralize political power, revitalize industry and end street sleeping by homeless people. He said he would deliver a "circuit breaker" for a system that has taken wrong turns since the 1980s, when public services and utilities were privatized and local government eroded.
"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," he said.
Burnham said he was "acutely conscious" of the political revolving door he was walking through.
"This is a moment for reflection and new resolution," he said. "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, and that is our challenge to make politics work, to make it work better."
One of Burnham's biggest tasks on his first day was to appoint a Cabinet. The key post of chancellor of the exchequer went to John Healey, the former defense secretary who quit the previous government a few weeks ago over funding plans for his department. His appointment as Treasury chief was a surprise.
Healey replaces Rachel Reeves, the architect of much of the economic agenda of Burnham's predecessor, Keir Starmer, as well as some of the missteps that ate away at his support. Others leaving the Cabinet included David Lammy, who was deputy prime minister.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband was given the role of foreign secretary. He replaces Yvette Cooper, who was appointed health secretary, a demotion but a hugely important post for the Labour Party's reelection prospects. Shabana Mahmood remains as home secretary. The full Cabinet meets Tuesday.
Party changed leaders in midterm
Burnham became the seventh U.K. prime minister since 2016 in a now well-rehearsed handover after replacing Starmer as leader of the center-left governing Labour Party on Friday. Starmer announced last month that he would resign.
Starmer left office just two years after winning a landslide election victory, forced out by his own party after a series of missteps and U-turns.
Britain's parliamentary democracy allows governing parties to change leaders, and thus prime ministers, without the need for a general election. The next national poll does not have to be held until 2029, though Burnham can call one sooner if he wants.
Burnham was the only candidate in a contest to become the party's new leader, securing nominations from 379 of the 403 Labour lawmakers in the House of Commons.
He will confront many of the same struggles as his predecessor: a sluggish economy, a cost-of-living crisis, overstretched public services, concerns about migration and foreign affairs that include wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
He will also try to navigate relations with U.S. President Donald Trump, who first warmed to, then soured on, Starmer. Burnham's office said the prime minister spoke to Trump on Monday afternoon and "underlined his commitment to defense and security."
The new leader pledges a new style of politics
The former mayor of Greater Manchester previously pledged to make politics "less toxic," improve living standards across the country and "bring back the hope we have all been missing."
Burnham said he will set out a 10-year plan for Britain later this year. Before that, he will lay out first steps "to give people some breathing space now, some help with the cost of living."
"And I will set out some of those measures starting tomorrow, including how we pay for them," he said.
After his speech, he told reporters that he has "always taken a very prudent approach" to the economy in previous jobs, and will not take any economic risks now.
Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said Labour had backed Burnham "to inject a sense of positivity, of hope, of purpose, a sense of direction."
Burnham says "he is going to mark a big break, not just with Keir Starmer, but also with what he regards as four decades of the country going in the wrong direction," Bale said. "But quite what that means in terms of concrete policies, in terms how much he's going to spend and on what, and how much is going to tax … we're not sure yet."
Starmer exits early but says his job was done
In the rapid-fire world of British political transitions, Burnham entered Downing Street only minutes after Starmer left.
"I go with good grace. I go with a smile, and I go proud of everything that we have achieved," Starmer said before heading to Buckingham Palace to offer his resignation to the king. It was an offer the king "was graciously pleased to accept," the palace said in a statement.
Starmer became Labour leader in 2020 after one of the party's worst election defeats, and he led Labour to a landslide victory four years later. But he was soon defeated by the challenges of governing.
"It has been the privilege of my life to serve you and this great country as prime minister," Starmer said before leaving Downing Street, hand-in-hand with his wife, Victoria. "I am confident that Britain is now stronger and fairer than it was two years ago."
British prosecutors charge a man with murder in the death of former politician Ann Widdecombe
LONDON -- British prosecutors charged a 28-year-old man with murder Monday in the death of former politician and reality TV contestant Ann Widdecombe.
Joshua Kerry was charged after more than a week in custody on suspicion of murder and acts of terror. Police are continuing to investigate his motive, including a potential political or terrorist connection, prosecutors said.
The death of Widdecombe, 78, a former member of Parliament, shocked the British political world, where Widdecombe was a prominent voice for decades. She was a blunt-speaking character known for socially conservative views opposing abortion and the expansion of LGBTQ+ rights.
Police said they believe Widdecombe was attacked July 8. She failed to appear that afternoon for a scheduled TV interview and was found dead the next day in her isolated rural home in a southwest England village.
Police did not disclose a cause of death, saying only that she had sustained "serious injuries" in what they called a targeted and brutal attack.
"I want to make it very clear that our investigation into this individual, determining his motivations and any wider activity he may have been involved in is continuing," said Laurence Taylor, head of counter-terrorism policing.
"Given Ann Widdecombe's profile and the targeted nature of the attack, determining the motivation, including any possible political motivation, remains an active avenue of investigation for our detectives," he said.
Taylor added that the investigation is intensive and complex, and detectives were working through more than 800 lines of inquiry.
Kerry was arrested July 11 in South Yorkshire county in northern England, more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) from the village of Haytor on the edge of Dartmoor National Park, where Widdecombe was found dead Thursday.
Kerry remains in custody and is scheduled to appear in Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.
He was originally arrested on suspicion of murder, but after finding new evidence while he was custody, he was rearrested on suspicion of commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
Widdecombe was in the House of Commons from 1987 to 2010, serving in roles including prisons minister in Prime Minister John Major's 1990s Conservative government.
She found fame after leaving Parliament as a contestant on the reality television shows "Strictly Come Dancing" and "Celebrity Big Brother."
She later joined the Brexit Party, briefly serving as a member of the European Parliament before Britain left the European Union in 2020. Most recently, she joined the anti-immigration Reform UK party, often appearing in the media as a spokesperson.
The killing has renewed concerns for politicians about security, which was tightened in the past decade after the murders of two serving members of Parliament. Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed in 2016 by a far-right extremist, and Conservative David Amess was stabbed in 2021 by an attacker inspired by the Islamic State group.
Children describe how Nigerian militants moving south are seizing more young captives
ESINELE, Nigeria -- Aliyu Saheed feared he might not see his three young sons again. For nearly two months after al-Qaida-linked fighters carried out a mass abduction of schoolchildren in an area of Nigeria formerly free of such attacks, he could hardly sleep at night.
He wondered what the boys were doing in captivity and how his youngest, just 5 years old, would survive.
"The day they told us they had been rescued was the happiest day of my life," the farmer told The Associated Press, as children returned to the community on Friday to feasting and prayers led by pastors and Islamic clerics.
His boys were among dozens of students abducted from their classrooms in Oriire area of southwestern Oyo state on May 15 before being rescued on July 10.
Children as young as 3 were seized in the attack that awakened many Nigerians to a threat that has been moving south through Africa's most populous nation in the last year. Competition for territory and control of natural resources has intensified among jihadis and other armed groups as they expand beyond the conflict-battered north to areas largely spared until now.
Nigeria's forests are used for militants' expansion
The armed men stormed into the agrarian community and took 39 children from three schools. They were marched, along with teachers, into a vast forest reserve nearby. One teacher was killed in the abduction. Two others were killed in captivity, according to local media.
The forest reserve connects to neighboring Kwara state to the north, which borders northern Nigeria and its long history of mass abductions of students by armed groups, often for ransom. Analysts say children and schools are often seen as strategic targets to draw more attention and higher ransoms.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has said the attackers in Oyo state were Ansaru militants, a breakaway faction of the Boko Haram militant group that claims to defend the interests of Islam and has been more active in recent years.
Authorities said the rescue operation was carried out jointly by the military, intelligence agency and police, and that eight kidnappers were arrested while others were killed.
The abduction turned attention to Nigeria's lightly policed forest reserves and their use as a corridor and hiding area for armed groups.
"The thing to learn is that the forested areas of the country must be much better surveilled because that is where those armed groups operate and keep their victims," said Joachim MacEbong, a senior analyst at global risk consultancy firm Control Risks.
Children described being bound and beaten
In interviews with the AP, the children and their parents spoke of horrid conditions in captivity. They said their captors left them in the open without shelter, exposing them to sun and rain.
Saheed's eldest son, 9-year-old Shuaib, said he and his brothers tried to distract themselves by thinking about the comfort of home and their mother's cooking. They were fed a basic meal of boiled rice and palm oil, he recalled.
"I could not say anything for fear of getting beaten," he said. "They flogged us with a cane all over the body, and they hit me in the back with the butt of their gun."
The militants beat the youngest children the worst and muffled their mouths with cloth so that their cries would not attract attention, Alamu Folawe, the head of one of the schools, told journalists.
Families said some children now have physical scars, and many are still recuperating psychologically.
Aduke Balogun's daughter, 8-year-old Kehinde Kaosarat, was one of the last to be discharged from the hospital. She has not left her mother's side since she returned home on Friday.
While in captivity, the girl said, she could not eat or sleep because "I kept imagining the worst things."
Abducted siblings Jacob and Mary told their parents after their release that they didn't want to return to school, said their father, Gabriel Sunday.
It's a common concern after such kidnappings in a country that already has one of the world's highest numbers of children out of school.
"Sending them back to the school does not sound meaningful to me right now," said Saheed, the father of the three boys.
The spread to the south increases pressure on leaders
Tinubu, elected in 2023 after promising to end the country's security woes, has come under growing pressure. The U.S. military is supporting Nigerian forces, though much of that is restricted to logistics and intelligence-gathering at the heart of the violence in the north.
Although Tinubu said the Ansaru militants' network of informants was dismantled during the rescue operation, analysts say the drivers of insecurity, such as corruption and poor governance, remain. And Nigeria's overstretched security forces are mostly absent in remote communities.
James Barnett, a research fellow with U.S.-based Hudson Institute who specializes in security in Africa, said Ansaru has been building networks in Nigeria's southwest for many years.
Experts say an attack regarded as successful could inspire more.
Some residents now hesitate to return
Friday's celebration of the children's return drew the community of Christians and Muslims together for dancing and a meal to express their gratitude.
"We have all come here to thank God for protecting the children and their teachers and helping the military men who rescued them," said Tajudeen Abioye, the village chief.
Many residents left the area after the attack but have started trickling back. Although security forces deployed following the mass abduction are still in the area, locals remain anxious, especially farmers whose farms are close to the forest reserve.
"The rescue of the Oriire abductees is wonderful news and should inspire some confidence in Nigeria's ability to better manage these threats. But it is not the end of insecurity in the southwest or Nigeria as a whole," Barnett said.