Can voters believe Andy Burnham will be any different to Keir Starmer?

What’s the story?

Andy Burnham has become the UK's Prime Minister, and has made his first task to end homelessness across the country.

He has pledged £340 million to tackle rough sleeping.

Burnham delivered his first address as PM at Downing Street, his new London home, while pledging that power will shift from the capital to "every postcode in the land", and promised to give people "some breathing space" in the ongoing cost of living crisis.

He said politicians had "not been good enough", and said he will "give this my all".

But we’ve been here before, with Keir Starmer standing in the same spot in 2024 and offering a similar message of hope to the British people.

“My work is done,” Starmer said today as he stood down.

But is Burnham just the same Labour leader, in more casual clothes, or does he have a real plan for power?

"You can see a great deal of continuity between Starmer and Burnham, in that actually they're promising the same thing," says Lewis Goodall.

"If you go back to 2024 – what did Starmer say? He said he wanted a politics which trod more lightly on people's lives, suggesting he would bring stability back and he would stop the volatility.

"He talked about the fact that the country required fundamental change, he said that Britain was completely broken. Burnham is talking in similar sorts of tones."

Lewis says one of the big "conundrums" of the new Burnham government will be whether he is truly serious about "doing government differently" to his predecessor.

Andy Burnham's huge advantage over Keir Starmer

Emily Maitlis says there's one big difference between Starmer and Burnham – and that's a complete lack of fear in this new 'king of the north'.

He addressed the nation today, without notes or lectern, and spoke directly into TV cameras, seeking appeal directly to the people of Great Britain.

"What we saw with Keir Starmer was, having reshaped the party, he then became too scared of the party," Maitlis says

"He had to be nice to his new-look party because that was what he had."

She says Starmer's fear was apparent in his indecision and u-turns over issues such as welfare changes, immigration issues, his misjudged “island of strangers” speech, whether or not to end the cap on child benefits.

"He was scared of his own shadow. He didn't really know what he wanted to do because he was still being bossed around by the party," Maitlis says. And while Burnham now inherits the same party, he is also taking a whole new set of circumstances.

"Burnham is in the advantageous place that this party has to be nice to him because it is the last chance they have," Maitlis adds.

"So if he has an agenda, whatever he chooses to do, wherever he takes them – whether it's about North Sea drilling, cutting welfare, or standing up to Trump, they have to go along with it because otherwise they're done, they're over.

"It is a cleaner slate for him if he actually does know what he wants to do."

But there will be bumps in the road for Burnham...

Jon Sopel says Labour only has one shot at replacing their leader as they have with Burnham, and says this is the "last roll of the dice" for this government.

But while these circumstances may result in compliance from a Labour running scared, there is one major thing missing for Burnham.

"The great weakness is that there is no mandate for some of the changes possibly that he wants to introduce," Jon says.

"He talks about having a 10-year plan – but hang on, didn't we have that two years ago with Keir Starmer?

"How can he do all this without calling a general election?"

Lewis says any pushback from Labour MPs will reflect this, and be used to battle their new leader and his soon-to-be-revealed plan for Britain.

"The problem for Burnham is if he thinks that the country needs a really big shift in political direction, there are going to be big parts of the Labour Party who say there isn't legitimacy for those changes," Lewis says.

"They will say it means potentially moving away from the confines of the 2024 election manifesto.

"It's the same diagnosis and the question is: Does Burnham have a different prescription?"

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