King Charles asked Andy Burnham to form a government Monday morning, minutes after Keir Starmer resigned at Buckingham Palace. Burnham — Manchester's mayor, Labour's insurgent — becomes Britain's fifth prime minister in four years and its seventh in a decade. Number 10 has a revolving door now, and the door is the story.
He wasted no time picking his fight. Burnham used his first speech to attack Margaret Thatcher's legacy — the deregulated, privatized settlement every PM since has managed rather than challenged. Markets, already wobbly, started pricing what a genuinely left Labour government means.
Trump greeted the new prime minister by calling Britain a "Poverty Stricken Disaster." The special relationship now opens with an insult — and Burnham owes Trump nothing. Where Starmer placated, Burnham campaigned against everything Trump represents, and won.
