Andy Burnham must deliver a 'new era of power' for the North East ...

Tenberal correspondent Simon Wong reports:

Andy Burnham has become the UK's seventh prime minister in just over a decade. This is the scene when he was speaking in Downing Street for the first time, he says he knows 'people at home are fed up with politics,' after appointed by King Charles III as Prime Minister on July 20, 2026. He has won the nomination of 349 Labour MPs as the only candidate.

He has appointed most of his cabinet yesterday and here is what we already know:

Louise Haigh – First Secretary of State, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Minister for the Cabinet Office: Serving as Burnham's most senior minister, Haigh heads up the newly created Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, overseeing operations in both London and the new Manchester base (No 10 North).
John Healey – Chancellor of the Exchequer: In a surprise appointment, Healey—who previously resigned as defence secretary over funding rows—takes over the Treasury.
Ed Miliband – Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs Secretary: Moved from the energy brief to take charge of British foreign policy.
Shabana Mahmood – Home Secretary: Retained in her position to continue driving forward stringent policing and immigration strategies.
Angela Rayner – Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government: Returned to the Cabinet to helm housing policy and regional devolution.
Yvette Cooper – Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Wes Streeting – Secretary of State for Defence
Jonathan Reynolds – Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (following a department restructuring)
Pat McFadden – Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Retained)
Lucy Powell – Secretary of State for Education
Lisa Nandy – Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Alex Norris – Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Angela Eagle – Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Andy Burnham has gathered his cabinet at No.10 for his first official cabinet meeting. In the meeting, they have discussed about governing with a one-team approach, where the team must operate in "absolute unity." Under this mode, Burnham relabelled the government as a "Cost-of-Living" one and highlighting that their primary goals would be targetting the cost-of-living crisis and the extreme financial pressure on housing in the UK to "bring back hope" for the public, and upon the announcement, he has scrapped VAT on domestic electricity bills starting October 1, brought by Conservatives' John Major's government back in 1993. The scrap is expected to save regular household about £45 a year, funded by cutting the digital ID cards, initiated by Sir Keir Starmer's government. But, ironically, Sky News has already published three reports that are showing the real statistics behind Burnham's cut. First off, the energy price cap is at £1,663 now, but by January, 2027, the number goes up to £1838, so the energy cap rising is actually way higher than the cut, not that we don't welcome it, because every little helps (sorry, Tesco). Second, the identification card project by Starmer expects to cost 1.8 billion over a span of three years, which is 600 million for each year, but the cut costs 850 million for just one fiscal year and we don't know what happens after that. Third, Sky's Shamaan Freeman-Powell interviewed people in Sheffield and ooo, a poke in teh chest to Burnham, "£50 doesn't even buy a meal."

47 Lloyd St, Manchester, M2 5LE - Heron House | LoopNet

Another big change that we expect to see very soon under Burnham's government is that part of No.10 in London would be moving to Manchester, under his "No.10 North" scheme to Manchester Digital Campus in Great Ancoats Street in Ancoats (New Islington) and the construction is expected to finish by 2028. During this period, the service will be operating in very modern Heron House (located at 47 Lloyd Street) at the heart of Manchester City, which is also a government building (not No.10, obviously). Departments, including Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and local service of the HM Treasury, have already been transferred to the No.10 North. This is, apparently, to Increasing public ownership and oversight of essential utilities (like water, energy, and housing), driving re-tooling and re-industrialisation of Manchester and prioritise the rejuvenation of the "left-behind" part of Manchester city centre. Tenberal News understands that the Northern headquarters supervised day-to-day by Deputy Chief of Staff Caroline Simpson with Burnham himself spending at least one day a week operating out of the Manchester headquarters. Ah, Andy is so good that even after he resigned as the Mayor of Greater Manchester, his heart is still connected with the England's second largest city. But, undoubtedly, Burnham has many positive attribution to Manchester as "the King of the North" with a high approval rating of 65%, much higher than Starmer's -41% (2026), Sunak's -59% (2024) and Johnson's -53%.

It is undeniable that Burnham has left a great Manchester behind, with a skytop of 65% as the Mayor of Greater Manchester in his nation-renowned "Manchesterism" but this is also the case for our previous Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who has 58% of Londoners' approval as Mayor of London but fall into -53% after resigning as Prime Minister in 2022. Nevertheless, we are excited to see what Andy Burnham can bring the UK into.

Here comes Andy Burnham as the Prime Minister...

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