Plaid Cymru continue calls for power over rail, Crown Estate, justice, and policing as Burnham becomes party leader

Helen Corbett, Press Association Political Correspondent

Andy Burnham will promise to be “unashamedly Labour” when he officially becomes the party’s leader on Friday before taking over from Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister next week.

He will say in a speech that his government will have the “courage to fix the big things that politics has neglected” and the “conviction to argue for our plans”.

The former Greater Manchester mayor, who returned to Westminster last month as Makerfield MP, will be confirmed as Labour leader in a special conference and then enter No 10 on Monday.

Mr Burnham will set out plans to focus on economic renewal, more public control and reindustrialisation.

And he will say that Britain took “a series of wrong turns in the 1980s” when “political power was centralised and economic power privatised”.

Making the economy work for people across the UK will require “a new path to the one we’ve been on for the last 40 years”, Mr Burnham is set to say.

He will promise that the party under his leadership will be “unashamedly Labour in our priorities and in the decisions we take, putting people and places at the heart of everything we do”.

He will pledge to make the party more united under his leadership and pay tribute to Sir Keir for returning Labour to government, while praising the achievements his party has made so far since 2024, including on workers’ rights, the NHS and the passing of the Hillsborough Law.

In a video posted on social media on Thursday night, he also said he was going to “expend quite a lot of political capital” on social care and spoke about his own family’s experience with the system as his father has Alzheimer’s.

Mr Burnham was the only candidate to get the required support to replace Sir Keir as party leader after his resignation.

He was backed by 369 of the party’s 403 MPs, far surpassing the 81 needed, and secured the support of eight of the 11 unions affiliated with the party.

The special conference is expected to be opened by Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell at noon, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to announce the results in her role as chairwoman of the party’s ruling National Executive Committee before Mr Burnham’s victory speech.

Mr Burnham steps into the job at a time when his party has trailed Reform UK in opinion polls for nearly 18 months and Labour will be hoping his presence will spark a bounce and turn around its fortunes.

Sir Keir has said he believes Labour can win the next election under Mr Burnham, and that he is “proud to hand over the party in good shape” to his successor.

Questions remain about how far the former mayor’s plans will differ from Sir Keir’s agenda.

Mr Burnham has spoken about how he wants to push powers to local leaders outside Westminster as part of his devolution agenda and to create a “No 10 North” outpost of Downing Street based in Manchester.

He has said he will stick to Rachel Reeves’ fiscal rules as well as manifesto pledges not to raise income tax, VAT or national insurance, but declined to rule out a wealth tax in an interview this week.

His close ally, Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram, hinted that a wealth tax is under consideration, telling The i Paper voters must be shown what the levy would “achieve” for a particular “sector or area” so it was not seen as punitive towards people who have “got a few bob”.

The Liberal Democrats have urged him to overhaul the water industry in his first weeks as prime minister and immediately place Thames Water into a special administration regime.

Green leader Zack Polanski said Mr Burnham was offering a “semi-skimmed” version of his party’s policies and would oversee widening inequality.

The make-up of Mr Burnham’s top team in Cabinet has also not been confirmed, with Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper all rumoured as potential picks for his chancellor.

He has drafted in Matthew McGregor, who has worked on elections in the UK and abroad and is currently chief executive of campaign group 38 Degrees, as his No 10 director of political strategy.

In response to Andy Burnham being crowned the Labour Party’s new leader, Plaid Cymru Westminster Leader, Liz Saville Roberts MP said: “Plaid Cymru, both in Westminster and in government in Wales, stands ready to work constructively with the incoming Prime Minister to improve the lives of people in Wales.

“The new Labour leader and next Prime Minister must take a genuinely different approach to governing if he wants to abide by his pro-devolution principles. After years of over-centralised inequality, we hope this will mark the beginning of a more respectful and productive relationship between Wales and Westminster.

“Plaid Cymru has a mandate from the people of Wales to demand greater devolution, including powers over rail, the Crown Estate, justice, and policing. Andy Burnham has talked the talk on devolution, it’s now time for him to walk the walk and respect that mandate.”

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