Burnham to say his government will be ‘unashamedly Labour’ in first speech as party leader – UK politics live

Good morning. Today the Labour party is going to formally announce at a “special conference” that Andy Burnham is its new leader. We will get a speech from Burnham at that event, and then he is expected to give another speech at an event later this afternoon. As Kiran Stacey and Rowena Mason report, in his special conference speech Burnham will say he will lead a government that will have the ‘courage to fix the big things that politics has neglected’ and the ‘conviction to argue for our plans’. Andy Burnham to promise to ‘fix the big things’ in first speech as Labour leader Read more According to an overnight briefing, Burnham will also 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”. But Burnham does not actually get to start forming his government until Monday, when he will be appointed prime minister, take over in No 10 and start appointing his government. Burnham’s communication via social media has been excellent in recent weeks and we saw another example last night when he posted video of himself in Cardiff holding an “Ask Andy Anything” event, sitting on a chair on the main pedestrianised shopping street and speaking to people passing by. “Ask Andy Anything” is not an invitation he has extended to journalists like Nick Robinson or Beth Rigby recently (he has done very little media as he has been planning for government), and if anyone did ask him who he was going to appoint as chancellor, the answer did not make it into the final video. But there was a tantalising hint as to one of his priorities when he asked about social care. Burnham said that his father has Alzheimer’s and that as a result he was very familiar with the problems in the social care system. “If there’s one area that I’m going to expend quite of a lot of social capital [on], it’s going to be on social care,” he said. Here are the key timings for the day. Noon: Labour holds its special conference to announce Burnham as leader. Lucy Powell, the deputy Labour leader, Shabana Mahmood, chair of the national executive committee (as well as home secretary, and possible next chancellor), and Hollie Ridley, the outgoing general secretary, are all due to speak as well as Burnham. 2.30pm: Burnham is due to give a speech in the south-east of England. If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X , but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @And