Removal van in Downing Street as Keir Starmer prepares to leave No10

Removal van in Downing Street as Keir Starmer to leave No10Removal van is pictured outside No10 as Andy Burnham prepares to take over as Labour leader and Prime Minister

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A removal van has been seen in Downing Street as Sir Keir Starmer prepares to leave No10.

The Prime Minister is stepping down with Andy Burnham to take over in the role on Monday.

Mr Burnham will be confirmed as the new Labour leader on Friday.

A van from Bishop's Move, which specialises in removals, storage and shipping, was pictured arriving at Downing Street ahead of the confirmation.

A van from Bishop's Move, which specialises in removals, storage and shipping, arrives at Downing Street ahead of the confirmation of Andy Burnham as the new leader of the Labour PartyPA

Mr Burnham will give a speech after he becomes Labour leader and will say that his government will have the “courage to fix the big things that politics has neglected” and the “conviction to argue for our plans”.

Mr Burnham will set out plans to focus on economic renewal, more public control and reindustrialisation.

And he will say that Britain took “a series of wrong turns in the 1980s” when “political power was centralised and economic power privatised”.

Making the economy work for people across the UK will require “a new path to the one we’ve been on for the last 40 years”, Mr Burnham is set to say.

He will promise that the party under his leadership will be “unashamedly Labour in our priorities and in the decisions we take, putting people and places at the heart of everything we do”.

Bishop's Move specialises in removals, storage and shippingPA

He will pledge to make the party more united under his leadership and pay tribute to Sir Keir for returning Labour to government, while praising the achievements his party has made so far since 2024, including on workers’ rights, the NHS and the passing of the Hillsborough Law.

In a video posted on social media on Thursday night, he also said he was going to “expend quite a lot of political capital” on social care and spoke about his own family’s experience with the system as his father has Alzheimer’s.

Mr Burnham was the only candidate to get the required support to replace Sir Keir as party leader after his resignation.

He was backed by 379 of the party’s 403 MPs, far surpassing the 81 needed, and secured the support of eight of the 11 unions affiliated with the party.

A worker from Bishop's Move, which specialises in removals, storage and shipping, with furniture outside Downing StreetPA

The special conference is expected to be opened by Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell at noon, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to announce the results in her role as chairwoman of the party’s ruling National Executive Committee before Mr Burnham’s victory speech.

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Mr Burnham steps into the job at a time when his party has trailed Reform UK in opinion polls for nearly 18 months and Labour will be hoping his presence will spark a bounce and turn around its fortunes.

Sir Keir has said he believes Labour can win the next election under Mr Burnham, and that he is “proud to hand over the party in good shape” to his successor.

Questions remain about how far the former mayor’s plans will differ from Sir Keir’s agenda.

Mr Burnham has spoken about how he wants to push powers to local leaders outside Westminster as part of his devolution agenda and to create a “No 10 North” outpost of Downing Street based in Manchester.

London MPs could face the axe from the Cabinet as Mr Burnham prepares to name his top team to help him run the country.

Sir Keir Starmer visited Ukraine ahead of departing as Prime Minister PA Wire

He has said he will stick to Rachel Reeves’ fiscal rules as well as manifesto pledges not to raise income tax, VAT or national insurance, but declined to rule out a wealth tax in an interview this week.

His close ally, Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram, hinted that a wealth tax is under consideration, telling The i Paper voters must be shown what the levy would “achieve” for a particular “sector or area” so it was not seen as punitive towards people who have “got a few bob”.

The Liberal Democrats have urged him to overhaul the water industry in his first weeks as prime minister and immediately place Thames Water into a special administration regime.

Andy Burnham returned to Westminster last month as Makerfield MP and will soon be Prime Minister (Nigel French/PA)PA Wire

Green leader Zack Polanski said Mr Burnham was offering a “semi-skimmed” version of his party’s policies and would oversee widening inequality.

The make-up of Mr Burnham’s top team in Cabinet has also not been confirmed, with Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper all rumoured as potential picks for his chancellor.

He has drafted in Matthew McGregor, who has worked on elections in the UK and abroad and is currently chief executive of campaign group 38 Degrees, as his No 10 director of political strategy.

In one of his final acts as Prime Minister Sir Keir has given London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan a peerage.

Sir Sadiq was the most significant name of those given a place in the House of Lords by the departing PM.

His move to Lords has provoked extreme reactions.