Burnham to drag us back to the 1970s: New Labour leader finally takes over and pledges to roll back Thatcherism

By JASON GROVES, POLITICAL EDITOR and CLAIRE ELLICOTT and SAM MERRIMAN, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Published: 00:46, 18 July 2026 | Updated: 00:58, 18 July 2026 Andy Burnham vowed to steer Britain back to the 1970s yesterday. Immediately after taking over as Labour leader, the next Prime Minister signalled a lurch to the Left, saying Britain had taken a 'series of wrong turns' under Margaret Thatcher that previous Labour governments had failed to undo. He said his administration would be 'distinctively Labour', suggesting his party would no longer 'wear too many Tory clothes' or try to 'out-Reform Reform'. In a speech that was long on rhetoric but short on detail, Mr Burnham claimed he would be the most important British leader for 40 years and boasted he would 'bring back hope' to Britain. He insisted he does have a 'plan' for the country, but he set out no details of the policies that would deliver his sweeping vision. And he made no mention at all of immigration, foreign affairs, crime or defence. Mr Burnham seized the Labour crown yesterday in an extraordinary stitch-up that leaves him with the weakest mandate of any PM in modern history. Ecstatic Labour MPs cheered him at the headquarters of the Trades Union Congress in London as he vowed to lead an 'authentically Labour' government – code for Left-wing. But opposition MPs accused Labour of gambling the country's future on a massive leap in the dark. Andy Burnham (pictured) was announced as Labour's new leader on Friday and is set to be appointed Prime Minister on Monday  Burnham claimed in his first speech as leader that Britain had taken a 'series of wrong turns' under Margaret Thatcher (pictured) that previous Labour governments had failed to undo  Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake challenged Mr Burnham to recall Parliament on Monday to set out his 'plan' to MPs. But he added: 'The truth is that, whether it is Keir Starmer or Andy Burnham, the real problem is the high-tax, high-spend Labour MPs behind them.' Former Tory Cabinet minister Esther McVey said: 'Is Andy Burnham living in the same world as the rest of us? His speech was a vacuous set of gloopy "hope in every heart" phrases while ignoring the biggest issues facing the country – defence, crime, immigration and the economy.' Nigel Farage called for an immediate general election, saying Mr Burnham had 'absolutely no mandate of any kind at all, none'. In a speech in London, the Reform UK leader said the incoming PM would push up taxes and abandon Britain's borders. On another day of Labour chaos: He visited Gravesend Town Pier in Kent before taking taking over as Prime Minister on Monday As the result was announced Burnham sat near Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, a frontrunner to be the new Chancellor But Mr Burnham has not ruled out Energy Secretary Ed Miliband (pictured on a Lime Bike) for the role The 1970s were marked by industrial strife, soaring inflation, and sky-high taxes culminating in Labour chancellor Denis Healey being forced to go cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout. Mrs Thatcher was swept to power in 1979 on a tide of public anger at Labour's failures and the party did not regain power until Tony Blair won with New Labour in 1997. But Mr Burnham yesterday claimed that successive Labour governments had failed to undo '40 years of neoliberalism', which he said had damaged towns in the party's northern heartlands. 'I am clear: Britain took a series of wrong turns in the 1980s,' he said. 'Political power was centralised and economic power was privatised. The country surrendered control of the essentials – housing, water, energy, transport – and left people exposed to higher costs. 'That, in turn, led to the concentration of more wealth and power in the hands of fewer people and fewer places. Large parts of Britain were deindustrialised without the power to set new ambitions for themselves.' Reform's Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick dismissed Mr Burnham's economic analysis as '20 minutes of vacuous twaddle', saying there was: 'No change. No specifics. No plan whatsoever... The country is in a mess and it needs new leadership but that was neither new nor leadership.' Mr Burnham has previously hinted he will look to put the water and energy utilities under state control, as well as embarking on the biggest wave of council house building since the Second World War. Yesterday he suggested Mrs Thatcher's popular Right to Buy policy, which allowed more than two million low-income families to buy their first home, had been a mistake, saying the 'sell-off' had left the country 'chasing rents in the private-rented sector'. Allies suggest he is planning a series of eye-catching announcements next week in a bid to show he has hit the ground running. He is considering ditching Labour's opposition to new North Sea drilling in an attempt to show he will be 'pro-business'. Mr Burnham avoided a leadership contest after 379 of Labour's 403 MPs backed him, making it impossible for anyone else to clear the threshold for nominations. Sir Keir Starmer travelled to Ukraine to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky, who awarded the outgoing Prime Minister his country's Order of Freedom He will become Prime Minister on Monday when Sir Keir travels to Buckingham Palace to resign. The new leader yesterday praised Sir Keir for helping to save the Labour Party following Jeremy Corbyn's disastrous reign. He claimed he was not involved in the ousting of Sir Keir, saying: 'It was a decision taken by the Parliamentary Labour Party. I wasn't in Parliament – I wasn't in a position to be involved.' One Starmer loyalist described the claim as a 'flat out lie'.