Burnham is fifth PM in four years – now he’ll try to buck the trendpublished at 06:04 BST
06:04 BST
Chris Mason
Political editor
Image source, Tayfun Salci
By lunchtime today, the UK will have its fifth prime minister in four years.
No other sentence can so pithily summarise the nature of British politics right now than that one.
In the summer of 2022 Boris Johnson was on his way out, but still in office. Since then there has been Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer.
Little wonder Andy Burnham will say later, we are told, that he is “acutely conscious” of this churn at the top. His critics, within the Labour Party and beyond it, may allow themselves a wry smile at that, given they would argue he has been agitating for this moment for ages.
Burnham is determined to hit the ground running and, where possible, to maintain the style of leadership he adopted as the mayor of Greater Manchester.
The rules of the House of Commons and meetings with the King, among others, will probably mean he wears a suit more often than he has in recent years.
But other conventions may be very intentionally ditched. I hear, for instance, that he may not bother with a lectern for his first speech as prime minister, outside 10 Downing Street, on Monday.
You can can read this analysis in full here.