Andy Burnham will become Britain’s seventh prime minister in 10 years next week after winning a Labour leadership contest in which his only challenger, an Australian, received just one vote.<\/p>\n
The vacancy at the top was sparked after unpopular incumbent PM Sir Keir Starmer resigned last month, two years after leading the party to a landslide general election victory.<\/p>\n
Mr Burnham was elected unopposed, sort of. British-Australian MP Catherine West was put forward by a colleague as an option to stand against him, but did not even vote for herself.<\/p>\n
Under Labour’s rules, prospective leadership candidates must have the backing of at least 20 per cent of the party’s lower house MPs to be considered viable.<\/p>\n
Labour has 403 MPs, meaning would-be challengers needed at least 81 to be considered.<\/p>\n
Voting opened on July 9 and by the time it closed on Wednesday evening, local time, Mr Burnham had 379 backers, and Ms West had one.<\/p>\n
Ms West grew up in Sydney but moved to the UK in 1998. She has represented the north London constituency of Hornsey and Friern Barnet since 2015.<\/p>\n
She did not nominate herself, and voted for Mr Burnham. However, she was put forward as a candidate by the MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, Neil Coyle, after it became mathematically impossible for her to get to 80 votes.<\/p>\n
Around two dozen Labour MPs, including Sir Keir, did not vote.<\/p>\n
While Sir Keir had been under pressure for months, backbencher Ms West in May became the first MP from within his own party to publicly call for him to resign.<\/p>\n
After being confirmed as Labour’s new leader, Mr Burnham delivered a speech central London on Friday, local time.<\/p>\n
“I don’t need to say commiserations to Catherine West, because she backed me too. Thanks Catherine,” he said.<\/p>\n
It is not clear why Mr Coyle decided to nominate Ms West. He had earlier this month declared on social media he would not vote in the contest.<\/p>\n
On Monday, in line with British tradition, Mr Burnham is expected to be invited to form a government during a private audience by King Charles III.<\/p>\n
Burnham wants ‘to build a new politics’<\/p>\n
Mr Burnham is a former long-time MP and served as a minister in the Brown and Blair governments.<\/p>\n
He twice stood unsuccessfully for the Labour leadership and left national politics in 2017 to become the Mayor of Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n
The 56-year-old resigned from that role earlier this year and returned to Westminster via a by-election in June, and during his campaign openly declared he would challenge the PM if elected to the Commons.<\/p>\n
In his speech on Friday, Mr Burnham promised to work tirelessly in his new job, and bring Labour together again.<\/p>\n
“I will work to build a new politics. The country is crying out for it,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We might enjoy the point scoring against others. The public don’t. How can politicians point fingers when living standards are falling? And politics as a whole isn’t working for them.<\/p>\n
“It infuriates them and makes them switch off.”<\/p>\n