Andy Burnham is set to become the UK's next prime minister on 20 July after being confirmed today as leader of the governing Labour Party.
Burnham will take office at a time of continued focus on clean energy investment, restrictions on new North Sea oil and gas licensing, and the role of public ownership in UK energy and infrastructure.
He will become the sixth UK prime minister since David Cameron stepped down in July 2016 following the Brexit referendum. Ministerial turnover has also been high, with seven finance ministers and eight energy ministers in the same period. Burnham is likely to reshuffle his cabinet once in office.
Burnham is taking over after Keir Starmer announced his resignation on 22 June following weeks of pressure from Labour MPs. Burnham returned to parliament through a June by-election and quickly secured overwhelming support from Labour lawmakers to become the party's sole leadership candidate.
Broadly centrist in the Labour Party, though to the left of Starmer, Burnham ran for the Labour leadership in 2010 and 2015 before leaving parliament to become mayor of Greater Manchester in northwest England in 2017.
He has consistently voted for more powers for devolved regions and local councils. But his parliamentary voting record is dated, following his near-decade as mayor. He was MP for the northwest constituency of Leigh from 2001-17, and became MP for nearby Makerfield following a by-election there last month.
Burnham concentrated on local issues as a metropolitan mayor, so lacks a recent record on foreign policy or defence, although he has said he will focus on national security. His voting record from his previous time as an MP was strongly aligned with Labour's, including on energy and climate policy. He was broadly supportive of renewable energy and efforts to tackle climate change during his time in parliament.
He has spoken about increasing public control of areas such as water, energy and transport. Starmer's government had already moved in this direction on transport by nationalising some rail providers, and on energy by establishing Great British Energy in 2024. The publicly owned energy company aims to develop, build and operate "clean" and "homegrown" energy.
Starmer's government has stuck to its ambitious decarbonisation agenda since taking power, carrying out much of what it promised in its manifesto. Energy minister Ed Miliband lifted a de-facto ban on onshore wind in his first week in office, and the Labour Party has prohibited new North Sea oil and gas licences, although tie-backs to existing fields are permitted.
Miliband and finance minister Rachel Reeves have stressed the importance of stability for long-term investment. The Labour government has secured more than £100bn ($134bn) of private investment in clean energy since it took power in July 2024, Miliband said last month.
