LONDON — Andy Burnham is set to become the U.K.’s seventh prime minister in just over a decade with numerous outstanding questions about who will be in his Cabinet and the policy direction he will pursue.

In an address from Downing Street, the incoming premier on Monday will pledge to deliver tangible improvements in people’s lives, while stressing that his rise to high office is a moment for “reflection and resolution,” according to advance remarks sent by his office. He will set out his domestic priorities, and conclude on a “message of optimism” saying Britain can look to the future with “hope and unity.”

Despite securing the backing of the vast majority of his party’s Members of Parliament last week, Burnham has already irked a swath of his party by refusing to give certainty on who he’ll appoint to key Cabinet positions including Chancellor of the Exchequer, and what policies he’ll pursue to mark his administration out as significantly different from that of the man he is replacing, Keir Starmer.

The incoming leader will inherit a prime ministerial inbox bursting with tricky issues, including how to keep lowering immigration levels that helped spur the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform U.K. party, containing the nation’s ever-increasing welfare bill, reinvigorating Britain’s stagnant productivity and overhauling social care to cater for an ageing population.

On the global front, he’ll have to contend with an unpredictable U.S. president in Donald Trump, while seeking to maintain British leadership in defense of Ukraine. A key challenge will be ramping up core defense spending to get to a pledged level of 3.5% of national output by 2035.

“Both the Andy Burnham administration and the Keir Starmer administration have both diagnosed the problems, at least rhetorically,” Panmure Liberum Chief Economist Simon French, chief economist said on Bloomberg Television. “On the steps of Downing Street, Keir Starmer, just over two years ago, talking about treading more lightly on people’s lives — that talks to supply-side frictions. Then, Andy Burnham in his comments this morning talking about ‘breathing space’ — that channels the cost of living.”

“Have they got the political backbone, the patience for some of these long-dated reforms?” French asked.

Burham will take power after Starmer visits Buckingham Palace to hand his resignation to King Charles III. He’ll then be driven to the palace for a ceremony called the kissing of hands — in modern times, no kissing is involved — at which he’ll be asked to form a government.

“As I now pass the baton to Andy Burnham, I wish him every success,” Starmer said in brief remarks in Downing Street, flanked by aides, supporters and members of his outgoing Cabinet. “He has my full support.”

Burnham’s arrival at 10 Downing St. will complete a dizzying ascent for a Labour veteran and twice-defeated leadership contender who until recently was serving as the mayor of Greater Manchester outside Parliament and with no obvious route to power. The resignation of an MP representing the constituency of Makerfield, gave Burnham a House of Commons seat to run for and hand Nigel Farage’s Reform U.K. a resounding defeat last month. Starmer announced his resignation days later.

Once he returns from his meeting with the king, Burnham will head to Downing Street to address the public around and begin appointing his Cabinet. The frontrunner to be named chancellor is Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, a move that will be seen as a snub to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, the former party leader who was the early favorite for the role and was instrumental in Burnham’s ascent to power. Burnham may install Miliband in the Foreign Office — another major role — to pacify him.

Close Burnham allies Louise Haigh, Anneliese Midgley and Deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell are all likely to be given significant roles. The fates of Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, former Health Secretary Wes Streeting and former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner will all be closely watched as Burnham seeks to avoid having powerful rivals on Labour’s back benches. Starmer, who remains an MP, is not expected to want or be given a Cabinet role.

On Sunday, Powell — who could be deputy prime minister by the end of Monday — sought to defend the opacity around Burnham’s Cabinet plans, saying: “You don’t start appointing a government and a Cabinet until you’re actually prime minister.” She declined to speculate on her own prospects, saying, “I will wait to see all of that tomorrow.”

In his only major policy speech of a leadership campaign that never gathered speed due to a lack of rivals, Burnham majored on plans to ramp up devolution, including establishing an outpost of No. 10 in Manchester, overseeing the biggest house-building program since the postwar period and giving more control over taxation as well as services such as water, energy and transport to the regions.

Burnham has spoken of the need to a “10-year plan” for the country, which is has drawn unfavorable comparisons to Starmer’s own failed decade-long project. In an interview with the Times newspaper published on Monday, he said didn’t mean that he would be the one to carry it out, but that the country was “not in the right place structurally” and needed a long-term vision.

Burnham told the Times that efforts to characterize him as a “tax-raiser” were “simplistic.” He acknowledged people’s frustration over the decision freeze the cap on tax-free income at £12,570 ($17,000), suggesting he might allow the so-called personnel allowance to rise.

Burnham has said he will stick with Labour’s 2024 election manifesto — a move that hinders his ability to raise the the Treasury’s three main revenue earners — income tax, national insurance and value added tax. It also commits him to the so-called triple lock guaranteeing annual rises in the state pension until after the next election. Burnham has also said he’ll stick to Reeves’ budgetary rules.

Over the weekend, Burnham’s team outlined plans to scrap proposals for a national digital ID, vowing instead to plow the cash that would have been spent on the program — £1.8 billion over three years according to the Office for Budget Responsibility — into priorities such as measures to alleviate the cost of living for ordinary Britons.

In his early days in power, Burnham is also preparing to announce new drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea as well as taking public control of Thames Water, Bloomberg reported last week.

The North Sea move may ease relations with Trump, who’s no ideological bedfellow, but has regularly criticized Starmer and Miliband for curtailing development in the North Sea. Responding to the news, Trump on Sunday posted that people in Aberdeen, the U.K.’s oil capital, “are dancing in the streets.”

On Friday, when he became Labour leader, Burnham promised his government would start to “confidently” lay out a path for the future starting Monday. “I am ready,” he said. “I have a plan.”

—With assistance from Irina Anghel and Selina Chen.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.