Andy Burnham has become leader of the UK Labor Party, paving the way for him to take over as Prime Minister following the resignation of Keir Starmer last month.

Burnham, dressed in a suit and red tie, was greeted with thunderous applause after being announced as the new Labor leader at a special leadership conference on Friday. “What a moment,” Burnham said as she took the podium. “What support you have given me.”

He continued: “This is a proud moment that you have given me and my family today, and an emotional one too. But it is one that I am ready for. I am ready, ready to lead and build on the foundation laid by one person more than any other.”

Burnham then thanked Starmer and said that under his leadership “we went from our worst defeat to one of the best victories in our history. Keir put the Labor Party back in a position to change people’s lives, and that’s what we’ve been doing these last two years.”

The formal handover at 10 Downing Street is expected on Monday, capping a five-week period from Burnham’s return to Parliament through a by-election victory to her installation as the country’s seventh prime minister in a decade.

Burnham has long treated the creative sector not as an afterthought but as a primary economic driver and tool for social mobility. From her tenure leading the national culture report under Prime Minister Gordon Brown to her nine years as anchor of Greater Manchester, she has consistently included grassroots arts and entertainment on her core political agenda.

During his tenure as UK Culture Secretary between 2008 and 2009, Burnham focused on creating future audiences for the live sector, backing “A Night Less Ordinary,” a £2.5 million ($3.3 million) Arts Council England initiative that offered 618,000 free theater tickets to people under 26. In 2009, while still Culture Secretary, he had already created the concept of “UK City of Culture”, inspired by Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2008.

As mayor, Burnham’s most visible legacy was Factory International, the organization behind the biennial Manchester International Festival and the £240 million ($322 million) Aviva Studios venue. But it has also built a wider funding architecture: the region’s GMCA Cultural Fund has channeled millions to a broad portfolio of organisations, with an explicit strategy to decentralize money from Manchester city center to creative hubs across all 10 boroughs, backed by its ‘City of Culture’ award, an annual award designed to boost local night-time economies and drive regeneration in towns from Bury to Oldham.

When the pandemic threatened to wipe out the region’s live entertainment ecosystem, Burnham’s administration shifted into survival mode in 2020 with emergency funds and commissions for displaced freelancers, before formalizing a broader cultural recovery strategy, “Plan, Protect, Restore, Heal, Grow,” in 2021. Throughout her mayoralty, Burnham linked financial support to social impact, pushing subsidized organizations to open career paths for working class youth.

Specifically for the screen sector, Burnham takes office having offered few specific policies on film, television or streaming, focusing her leadership campaign on devolution, social housing and living standards. He has pledged to seek “the greatest rebalance of power our country has ever seen” and has launched an “Operation No. 10 North” to coordinate that transfer agenda across the government.

The Burnham government inherits a Department for Culture, Media and Sport recently led by Lisa Nandy, whose remit included an £85 million ($114 million) capital funding package for cultural spaces. It has not yet been confirmed whether Nandy will retain the role under Burnham, although the two are considered political allies.