A very big day for Britain is winding down. Andy Burnham, the new prime minister, is at No. 10 Downing Street and has already begun making big decisions, including his picks for top cabinet posts. Burnham promised a series of policy announcements beginning on Tuesday.
In a surprise, Andy Burnham named John Healey, a political veteran, as the new chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr. Burnham earlier vowed to usher in a “circuit breaker moment” to change government.
Shabana Mahmood will keep her job as home secretary, a signal that Burnham is largely backing her efforts to crack down on legal and illegal migration with a sweeping overhaul of asylum and settlement rules. Those rules are opposed by many members of the progressive left in the Labour Party.
Ed Miliband, who served as Starmer’s energy secretary, will become the foreign secretary under the new prime minister. That gives Mr. Miliband one of the highest-profile jobs at a time of significant upheaval around the world, including in Ukraine and the Middle East. It will also fall to him to help manage the relationship with President Trump.
Burnham’s first calls today were focused on reiterating commitments to key allies. Among his early calls was one to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Zelensky, in a post on X, thanked the newly appointed prime minister for his “warm words of respect for the Ukrainian people and for your condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed in Russia’s recent attacks.” He also voiced hope that the two nations would expand on their existing relationship and said they had “agreed to discuss our future cooperation” during a planned future meeting.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said she had also had a “very good first discussion” with Burnham. “We are both committed to bringing the EU and the UK closer and closer,” she wrote in a post on X.
