Here’s what Andy Burnham said in his first speech as prime minister

The new UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, has just made his first speech (without a lectern) outside 10 Downing Street. 

In the opening lines of his speech, Burnham acknowledged that he is Britain’s seventh prime minister in 10 years and said “it requires my generation of politicians to raise our game”.

He also said he knows people at home are “fed up of politics”, stating: “I want to be honest with you, we have not been good enough and we need to be better. We will be”. 

1. Circuit breaker for Britain

Burnham said he would make “this moment a circuit breaker for Britain”. He said he will bring forward the biggest changes in 40 years, in another nod to the failures of neoliberalism, which started under Margaret Thatcher. 

The new PM said he will usher in a new political and economic model, undoing the privatisation of services and the centralisation of political power. He also spoke about areas of the country that were deindustrialised in the 1980s, and that they still haven’t recovered. He said he will take power out of Westminster and give it “to every postcode in the land” so they can do more.

2. A 10 year plan

Burnham said that he will bring forward a new 10-year-plan for Britain later this year. He said he will lay out “a path from where we are now to where I believe we all want it to be, wherever we’re coming from, whatever party we support”.

3. Cost of living support

Burnham emphasised that he can “do something to give people some breathing space now, some help with the cost of living”. 

Starting tomorrow, Burnham said he will set out some of those measures, and will explain how his government will pay for them. He also said he will help more young people into work by changing the education system and giving them more support.

He also said he will put essential services and utilities into public control to make them more affordable for people, and vowed again to build more council homes.

4. Burnham pledges to end rough sleeping

The prime minister said he would soon go into 10 Downing Street and issue his “first instruction” to end rough sleeping in the UK. Burnham made a similar pledge as mayor of Greater Manchester, but as per reporting by The Manchester Mill, did not manage to end rough sleeping in the city region.

Burnham insists that putting an end to rough sleeping can be achieved. He said that today, he will invest an additional £340 million in rough sleeping to help tackle the issue.

5. Caring for people

Burnham went on to emphasise that he will put “care of people at the heart of everything I do”, adding “I will give this my all, and I ask you all to pull with me”. He said that leading as prime minister is about “putting the right values and standards at the heart of government”. 

He called on people to work with him to build “a new national sense of unity, common purpose and positivity”. 

“Let us make this the moment that Britain starts to believe again. The moment that brings back hope,” he concluded.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward