Andy Burnham becomes Britain's seventh prime minister in a decade on Monday, promising to "rewire" the nation to focus more clearly on issues people care about, such as a cost-of-living crisis and poorly performing services.
His Labour Party colleague, outgoing premier Keir Starmer,made his farewell speech outside 10 Downing Street, telling supporters that "my work is done" and that he was leaving with "good grace" and a "smile".
After he formally tendered his resignation to King Charles, the monarch received Burnham to ask him to be prime minister.
The new Prime Minister on Monday pledged to set out new measures to help tackle the cost of living this week before setting out a new 10-year plan for the country later this year.
"Britain needs to show the world that we can regain our stability once again," Burnham said in a speech outside 10 Downing Street.
"We have not been good enough, and we need to be better."
Promising Britons "some breathing space now", he said the government would set out some measures to tackle the high cost-of-living, and how it plans to fund them.
Further out, he said: "We will help more young people into work by changing the education system and giving them more support, more mental health support, and we will build more council homes.
"That is the fair and sustainable way to bring the welfare bill down, to meet our fiscal rules, and to honour our commitments on defence to our international partners."
The hard work begins for the 56-year-old who, as mayor of Greater Manchester, earned the nickname 'King of the North'.
Once he has unveiled his cabinet — already the subject of much debate in the governing Labour Party — he will have to tackle a long list of problems ranging from anaemic economic growth to a cost-of-living crisis and underperforming utility firms.
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