Andy Burnham has been installed as leader of Britain’s Labour Party, the final step before he becomes prime minister on Monday.
Burnham said he would give people “hope back” and “the Labour they once knew” as he officially became the party’s new leader.
He said he is “ready to lead” as he took the governing party’s reins at a special conference at the Trades Union Congress headquarters in central London, the final step before replacing Keir Starmer as prime minister next week.
In his acceptance speech, Burnham said he would offer “hope”.
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He said the Labour movement which backed him “heard the call from the people of Makerfield on behalf of forgotten places everywhere up and down this country for a return of the Labour they once knew.”
“And now we answer that call,” he said.
“We will be that version of Labour again.”
He continued: “We are united and we put the power that comes from that unity at the service of people and places who have been waiting too long for politics to let them hope again.
“That’s what we’re going to do, everybody. We’re going to give them hope back.”
The former Greater Manchester mayor returned to Westminster as Makerfield MP last month and gained overwhelming support from Labour MPs to take over from Starmer as party leader after he announced his resignation.
British home secretary Shabana Mahmood, in her role as chairwoman of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee, confirmed the results of the leadership contest in which Burnham was backed by 379 of the party’s 403 MPs and all 11 unions affiliated with the party.
Mr Burnham will enter No 10 Downing Street on Monday to become the UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade, with all eyes on his policy agenda and who he will appoint to his cabinet.
Making his first speech, Burnham said: “This is a proud moment you have given me and my family today, an emotional one.
“But it is one for which I am ready. I am ready, ready to lead and to build on the foundation laid by one person more than any other.
“Under Keir Starmer’s leadership, we went from our worst defeat to one of the best victories in our history.
“Keir put Labour back in a position to change people’s lives, and that is what we have been doing these last two years.”
Burnham praised policies such as expansions of workers’ and renters’ rights, falling NHS waiting lists, rail renationalisation and the passing of the Hillsborough Law – “the biggest rebalancing of the scales of justice this country has ever seen”.
He added: “Today, we thank Keir for his service to our party and to our country.”
Burnham accused “the right” of having given away Britain’s control.
He said: “I want people to understand the thinking behind the political direction I set, so people can see the decisions we take and the reasons why. I am clear: Britain took a series of wrong turns in the 1980s. Political power was centralised, and economic power was privatised.
“The country surrendered control of the essentials – housing, water, energy, transport – and left people exposed to higher costs. That, in turn, led to the concentration of more wealth and power in the hands of fewer people and fewer places. Large parts of Britain were deindustrialised without the power to set new ambitions for themselves.”
He added: “Slowly, at times imperceptibly, over four decades, political and economic power drained away out of our communities in every region and nation of the UK.
“If local places don’t control something as basic as a bus service, how can they connect people to opportunity and turn things around?
“If the sell-off of council homes leaves the country chasing rents in the private rented sector through the benefits system and paying for temporary accommodation for thousands of families, as they have to do here in London and elsewhere across the country, how then will we find the money to invest in prevention and improve people’s lives? The truth is, we can’t.”
He questioned how the country could control inflation, public spending and the rest of the economy if there was not public control over the cost of the essentials, adding: “The right used the phrase ‘take back control’, but they are the ones who gave it away in the first place.” – PA
[ Mark Paul: Burnham's pledge to boost England's north has a familiar ringOpens in new window ]
