In final step towards becoming UK PM, Andy Burnham set to take over as Labour leader today

In the final step towards becoming Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Andy Burnham is set to take over as leader of the Labour Party on Friday.

After Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced his resignation last month amid a mutiny among Labour MPs, Burnham won a special election in Makerfield to mount an uncontested bid for the party leadership. He is set to become the seventh British prime minister in the past decade. No premier since David Cameron (2010-16) has completed a full five-year term.

In the UK, voters do not directly elect the prime minister. Instead, MPs elect the party leader, who then becomes prime minister.

At midday, Labour National Executive Committee Chair Shabana Mahmood will open the conference in London where Burnham will be formally announced as the party leader. He has the support of 95 per cent of MPs, and the conference is merely a formality.

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Following his election as party leader, Burnham is expected to set the tone for his premiership in a speech in which he is expected to say that his government will be "focused on driving growth in every postcode and returning power to communities" and set out a new path for the UK through a "distinctively Labour" approach centred on economic renewal, public control, and reindustrialisation, according to BBC News.

On Monday, Starmer will meet King Charles to tender his resignation, following which Burnham will visit the King to stake his claim to form a government. Once he receives the ceremonial go-ahead from Charles, Burnham will become prime minister. He is expected to unveil his Cabinet the same day.

Burnham to have no honeymoon period

Burnham will take over at a perilous time for both Labour and the country.

Even as economic growth has picked up lately and outpaced that of European peers, inflation remains above a comfortable level amid the risk of stagflation. The ripple effects of the West Asian conflict also threaten to weigh on economic growth. At a time when the UK —and Europe— are locked in a shadow war with Russia, the UK's relationship with the United States is arguably at an all-time low.

US President Donald Trump and his allies have unleashed a regime-change campaign aimed at toppling the Labour government and installing a far-right regime in the UK. It is part of a Europe-wide effort in which they are seeking to overthrow moderate governments and replace them with far-right regimes, backing the National Rally (RN) in France, the neo-Nazi AfD in Germany, and Law and Justice in Poland.

Domestically, Burnham's parliamentary majority may prove to be a paper tiger as the UK is in the grip of a far-right wave and Nigel Farage's Reform UK is projected to form the next government according to recent surveys.

The UK also faces a complex security environment. It is confronting Russian hybrid warfare and co-leads the 'Coalition of the Willing' alongside France in support of Ukraine. It is also under pressure to increase defence spending and contribute more to Europe's self-reliance efforts as the United States under Trump withdraws from the continent in the wake of the newfound friendship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.