Overview
- Burnham has secured 349 of 403 Labour MP nominations, a total that prevents any rival reaching the 81-MP threshold and leaves him effectively unopposed for the party leadership.
- He won a parliamentary seat in a June 19 by-election, a step required to be eligible for the Labour leadership contest.
- Labour is scheduling an extraordinary conference this Friday to formally confirm the leader and Burnham is expected to meet King Charles III before moving into Downing Street around July 20.
- The major union Unison has formally endorsed Burnham, and only a small number of affiliated organisations must complete routine approvals before his investiture.
- Burnham has begun pitching a sweeping decentralization programme to boost growth while the Bank of England governor has urged the incoming prime minister to make reversing the UK’s long-running growth shortfall his top priority.