Andy Burnham became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on Monday, replacing Keir Starmer in a handover choreographed around a visit to Buckingham Palace, where Starmer formally resigned and King Charles III invited Burnham to form a government.

Before heading to the Palace, Starmer gave a farewell speech at 10 Downing Street, flanked by colleagues and staff who greeted him with cheers and applause. He framed his six-and-a-half years as leader of the Labor Party and two as Prime Minister around the landslide 2024 election victory, pointing to falling immigration numbers, shorter waiting times on the National Health Service and lifting children out of poverty as markers of his record. He said the most humbling aspect of the job was witnessing “courage, decency and compassion” every day across the country, and closed by wishing Burnham “every success” and promising her “full support” before thanking her family, her staff and the Labor Party as a whole.

“My job is done,” Starmer said. “It has been the privilege of my life to serve you and this great country, as Prime Minister, and I am confident that Britain is stronger and fairer now than it was two years ago.”

Starmer’s final days in office brought a streak of international recognition. On July 14, French President Emmanuel Macron awarded him the Legion of Honor for his work with France on European security. Two days later, in a final visit to kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented him with the Order of Freedom, Ukraine’s highest honor for a foreign citizen, citing his support for the country during the war with Russia.

“I go with a good disposition, I go with a smile and I am proud of everything we have accomplished,” Starmer said.

Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, had been confirmed as Labor leader unopposed on July 17, after securing nominations from 379 of the party’s 403 MPs. His confirmation capped a five-week period from his return to Parliament through a by-election victory in Makerfield to his installation as the country’s seventh prime minister in a decade.

Burnham was the only declared candidate in the leadership race, which followed a rebellion among Labor MPs against Starmer.

After Starmer formally resigned as Prime Minister at Buckingham Palace, Burnham followed him and met King Charles III. He has formally become the 59th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

A statement from Buckingham Palace said: “Her Majesty received the Rt Hon Andrew Burnham MP in audience and asked him to form a new Administration. The Rt Hon Andrew Burnham MP accepted the King’s offer and kissed the hands on his appointment as First Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.”

Burnham then gave her own speech outside Number 10, breaking with tradition by speaking without a lectern. Noting that he was “the sixth person in the last 10 years to walk this street” and the seventh Prime Minister since 2016, he called on the latter to “reflection and new resolve”, saying Britain needs to “regain our stability once again”. He promised what he called the biggest changes in 40 years – “a new political model and a new economic model” – pointing to deindustrialization since the 1980s as a wrong turn that he aims to reverse through greater public control of “the essentials of life” and public procurement to support British industry.

Burnham said a full 10-year plan for Britain would follow later this year, but cost-of-living measures would begin “from tomorrow”. He also mentioned that ending rough sleeping was his first instruction to civil servants once they returned to Downing Street.

“I will put caring for people at the center of everything I do. I will give it my all and I ask everyone to support me. Let’s build a new national sense of unity, common purpose and positivity. Let’s make this the moment when Britain begins to believe again, the moment when we regain hope,” Burnham concluded.