The United Kingdom’s Conservative Party is forecasting months of “chaos” as Prime Minister Keir Starmer prepares to resign, saying the premier is “definitely not in power” while his presumed successor prepares to jump in his grave.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch made the grim prognostication on Monday at a Westminster press conference, where she complained that Starmer has given up while Andy Burnham is making dramatic promises without taking any questions.
“Britain is heading for a summer of chaos. We have a caretaker prime minister, barely in office, definitely not in power,” Badenoch said, acknowledging that “Burnham is already the prime minister in everything but name.”
Starmer announced his intention to resign last week following months of collapse and vocal detraction within the Labour Party, even from his own ministers.
Burnham, member of parliament for Makerfield and former mayor of Greater Manchester, is currently positioning himself as the next leader of the Labour Party and, ex officio, the next premier. His campaign is so far uncontested.
Badenoch — who previously dismissed Burnham as a “pair of eyelashes and a fancy T-shirt” — said Labour members were asleep at the wheel as they turn their attention to “which jobs they will be getting in the new government.”
“All major policy and spending decisions have been put on hold,” she warned. “The government is descending into chaos, and no one is dealing with the serious and urgent threats that this country faces.”
When Starmer announced he would be stepping down, Burnham came flying out of the gates — grabbing a train to London and beginning a press blitz to court the faith of disaffected Labour voters feeling burned by the Starmer government.
No. 10 North
He gave a landmark policy speech on Monday in which he laid out his broad vision as presumptive premier for the first time. His pitch included gestures toward greater government intervention in housing and infrastructure, conscious reindustrialization of small towns, and a signature promise to establish a “No. 10 North” in Manchester.
“No. 10 North will be the nerve center of a rewired Britain … It will be the conduit through which we redistribute power and resources across the U.K.,” he promised during the speech at the People’s Museum in Manchester. “It will coordinate all parts of government at national and local level to agree [on] a long-term economic strategy and help all places set new growth ambitions.”
Burnham did not take questions following his press conference.
Dan Hodges, a commentator with Mail on Sunday, reported on Monday that insiders within Burnham’s coterie said the presumed leader is “going to commit to spending at least a day a week in the ‘No. 10 of the North’, and in reality it will probably be a lot more.” Another source reportedly told the Mail on Sunday that he “will not be using No. 10 as his main home,” instead “staying in Golborne.”
The proposal for a prime ministerial office in the north of England — a region that is often characterized as forgotten or tread upon by the elites in the south — is somewhat novel, but the sentiment is not.
Former conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak touted progress in the Places for Growth program in 2023 to relocate thousands of Civil Service jobs “out of London” and “across the U.K.” as a means of “moving power out of Westminster and into the hands of communities.”
He inherited this agenda from his predecessor, fellow Conservative premier Boris Johnson, who had initiated the redistribution process with his “Levelling Up” agenda to put ministerial offices in cities including Glasgow and Wolverhampton. The government established a “Treasury of the North” in Darlington in 2023.
If all goes according to plan, Burnham expects to be confirmed as prime minister on July 17, one day after the House of Commons enters its summer recess. Badenoch is urging the premier-in-waiting to postpone the parliamentary recess for a few days so he can address them after taking office.
“Andy Burnham should delay the summer’s parliamentary recess by just a day or two — just a day or two — come to the house and tell us his plan for this country,” she said. “This is not a game. It should not be a soap opera. If he wants to be the leader of our country, it is time to start acting like it.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, whose party has been leading public voting intention polls for months, is demanding that the next prime minister swiftly call a general election to prove their mandate with the public.