As well as keeping people safe, Badenoch says Burnham's "next biggest challenge" is making people "feel richer".

She says Labour has hurt the UK economy under the "weight" of new taxes.

"He says he cares about the cost of living, Labour's taxes have made that worse," says Badenoch, adding recruitment is the worst for new graduates than it "has ever been".

She says if Burnham does not change course, he will leave office with unemployment higher than when he came in - "like ever other Labour prime minister".

Badenoch then asks if Burnham can guarantee that there will not more tax rises in the Budget.

She then accuses the PM of "living in the past" and says he wants to take the UK back to the 1970s, adding that his ideas are about "more government control, more spending, more tax".

Badenoch strikes a different tone compared to when Starmer was PMpublished at 16:37 BST

16:37 BST

Ben Wright
BBC political correspondent

Kemi Badenoch's tone seems slightly softer than the one she deployed against Keir Starmer.

But she's asking a series of very pointed questions, from defence to the economy.

The theme? How will he really be different from the man he turfed out of office.

Image source, UK Parliament

Image source, UK Parliament

Badenoch asks the prime minister if he will provide the funding which his own chancellor John Healey said was necessary to keep British troops safe - that is 3% of GDP by the end of this decade.

• For context: Healey resigned as defence secretary from Keir Starmer's government in a row over military spending

Badenoch then turns to illegal immigration and migrant boat crossings, saying it's not just a British problem, but a growing global problem.

She asks if the government is thinking of reviving the Rwanda-style scheme to remove illegal migrants and she asks Burnham if that's the plan.

She then moves on to the recent changes to the early release scheme, and says Burnham "changed his mind".

Badenoch asks him to set out a timeline for his promise to get more foreign nationals out of British prisons.

Image source, UK Parliament

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch now takes to the dispatch box, and she starts by congratulating Burnham on becoming PM.

Badenoch says she is "grateful that he has finally found time" to take questions in Parliament and says she will pose a "few very simple yet serious" questions.

She tells Burnham the job of PM is not as easy as it looks, before turning to Keir Starmer's resignation earlier this year, saying Labour MPs still haven't explained why they got rid of him.

Badenoch adds that the role of PM is a "different job" to mayor of Greater Manchester when he did not have to pick winners and losers, make difficult trade-offs or worry about national security.

Burnham now recalls when he stood outside Downing Street six weeks ago, saying at the time Britain needed a "circuit breaker" after a decade of "divisive politics".

The PM says today he is outlining "a clear, coherent and credible approach" to growth that can unlock a feeling of "possibility in every postcode".

"We can make this next decade better than the last... we can bring back hope," he says, ending his statement to big cheers from Labour MPs.

Next up is leader of the opposition Kemi Badenoch.

What action will Burnham take on the water industry?published at 16:21 BST

16:21 BST

Simon Jack
Business editor

Andy Burnham has described the water industry as "a leaking monument" to decades of wrong turns starting under the Thatcher government in the 1980s.

He promised he would give customers "more ownership and control" of the industry.

Using the word "ownership" is a subtle change from his promises to date which have promised "greater public control" - but stopped short of promising public ownership.

There have been proposals floated to turn water companies into so called mutuals - owned by their customers - which have been studied by the government.

The private consortium attempting to take control of Thames Water will be hoping that doesn't mean their proposed £10 billion rescue plan will be rejected in favour of mutualisation or nationalisation - whether temporary or permanent.

Turning to the cost of energy, the prime minister says household bills in the UK are the "highest in Europe" and that the high cost of energy is "impacting business and inward investment".

Burnham adds that too many areas have seen water supplies disrupted due to a lack of reservoir capacity and tourism has been affected by "too many sewage spills".

"Water companies are failing to rise to the climate challenge," he says, adding "it can't go on".

Burnham says his government will be setting out plans for "stronger public control" of these "essentials".

He adds his government will also "empower all areas to expand the public housing stock", including undertaking the biggest council home building program "since the post-war period".

Image source, House of Commons

The prime minister then states his government will oversee the biggest redistribution of power ever seen.

Areas such as powers over post-16 technical education and employment support, and the ability to start an overnight visitor levy, could be devolved, he says.

The driving force, he adds, will be No 10 North. saying that creating it was one of the first acts and over time he hopes it will be one of the most significant.

We will oversee the "rewiring of the British state, the rebuilding of resilience in our communities", he says.

No 10 North will be the "single front door on which regions can knock" to get quicker joined up decisions from Whitehall and through which power will be passed to them.

They can take back control of essential services like public transport, which is an enabler of a more productive economy, because it allows local areas to hold the levers of power for themselves, he says.

Burnham says he will give people back "control over their destinies" and will do so with confidence.

He says this is backed by a decade of personal experience turning around one of the UK's "former industrial heartlands" into the fastest growing city region in country.

Burnham is met with jeers from MPs as he says this but continues, adding his time as Greater Manchester mayor has "given me a theory of growth" which he will apply to all parts of the UK.

He says he understands the concerns over the potential emergence of a "two-tier" England and has asked No 10 North to begin work with Cornwall council and its MPs on a devolution deal with or without an elected mayor.

Burnham continues by saying he has extended the offer to all parts of England without devolved power and to the First Ministers of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

They pointed out they each had a "different situation" but expressed interest in what a local model of devolution would look like, he adds.

Image source, House of Commons

Image source, House of Commons

Burnham now lays out what he says has gone wrong in the country.

From the 1980s, he says, the country took a series of "wrong turns", political power was centralised, economic power privatised, the country de-industrialised - and Brexit compounded the damage, "ushering in a decade of low growth", he adds.

"Change begins with honesty", he says, and to change things around people need to be "blunt".

He targets the water industry saying it is a "leaking monument" to the governing approach of "a country run in the private rather than public interest".

"The government I lead will be relentless in giving people and places what they were promised 10 years ago, ownership and control," he adds.

Burnham says his approach is "politics done differently, problem solving over point scoring", to jeers from MPs on the opposition benches.

He says this is "what the country needs, what the public want more of", adding that it will "characterise my time in office".

The economy and cost of living are the biggest issues facing the country, Burnham says, adding people are looking for "much more substantial change".

He says Britain is not "where any of us would wish it to be" and that "things are not working as they should".

This is why, he says, one of his government's first moves was to cut VAT on electricity bills, business rates on pubs, clubs and music venues, as well as capping bus fares.

Burnham adds these measures will provide "some relief" but says the long-term will require "much more".

The prime minister now turns to the pressure on prison places, saying it's one of the first things he reviewed when taking office.

Burnham says after hearing the calls from the family of PC Andrew Harper and others, the government took the "early decision" to exclude rape, grooming and serious child sex offences from the early release scheme.

Burnham adds he can confirm anyone convicted of manslaughter, death by dangerous driving or indecent assault will now not see any change to their prison term.

The PM says the government will find more prison places by deporting more foreign national offenders and through its policy on indefinite sentences.

"None of this is easy," he says, but he believes the public will support him in recognising the clear difference of those who have "served their time" and "those who have not".

We can balance "public safety and basic fairness", Burnham says.

Burnham continues, and says he will build on the work of his predecessor in other areas and mentions a trip to Dover in early August, when he met with staff from the border force and coast guard.

The PM says he was told that extra police on French beaches is now beginning to deliver "real results".

He adds that the numbers of people crossing the Channel over the summer halved compared to last year, making this year to date the lowest for crossings since 2021.

Moving on to his meeting tomorrow with the French President Emmanuel Macron, Burnham says he will thank him for his co-operation in preventing small boat crossings.

Image source, House of Commons

Burnham now moves on to discussing public safety.

He expresses his "deepest condolences" to the families, friends and colleagues of PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough, who were killed in a car crash on the A66 near Middlesbrough last month.

The PM says he will do his best to support the community "which is hurting and grieving right now", and adds that he hears the calls for investment in the police.

Next, the prime minister pays tribute to the victims of the deadly flash floods in Nepal and Tibet.

"This is what the climate crisis looks like," he says, adding that the UK has experienced "what is likely to have been the hottest summer on record".

"This government will meet the climate challenge," Burnham says, adding that he will attend COP31 in Turkey in November.

Andy Burnham starts by giving a statement on the direction he says he "will lead our country".

The prime minister says he has visited each nation of the UK over the last six weeks, as well as Ukraine.

He then pays tribute to Keir Starmer, his predecessor, saying he has "given this country a lifetime of public service".

The PM says Starmer's stance on Ukraine is "one which I will not change, whatever the threats we face".

"We do not seek escalation, but will instead stand firm in providing what help we can to enable Ukraine to defend itself," he adds.

The prime minister is up on his feet and has started speaking in the House of Commons.

We will bring you all the key lines, and you can watch live at the top of the page.

Image source, House of Commons

Following the news that the rate for a 10-year loan to the British government soared to its highest level since 2008, we've been hearing about why it might be trickier for governments to borrow money.

Karen Ward, chief market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management, tells BBC Radio 4's World at One programme there are "lots of people, lots of governments, lots of countries wanting to spend".

It means the market's getting a lot more choice over who they lend to and the interest rates, she says.

"We are trying to compete with governments all over the world for global savings, and investors want to know the government has a clear plan for exactly how it’s going to spend that money, and how those investors are going to get repaid."

The "bond markets" are often spoken about as if they’re some sort of a "Bond villain" but, Ward says, two thirds of our debt is held by the British public - pensions being one example.

"The value of the national debt really matters to us as well, so we’re all in it together."

Earlier this afternoon, the PM's official spokesman said that Andy Burnham and Chancellor John Healey are "in lockstep" about the idea that "the government will meet the fiscal rules".

But what are the 'fiscal rules', and what do they mean for the economy?

The government's two fiscal rules are currently that by 2029/30:

• That day-to-day spending should be covered by money raised from taxes, and therefore borrowing should only be used for investment
• The government's net financial debt should be falling as a proportion of GDP

'Net financial debt' in the government's terms is actually a measure known as the public sector net financial liabilities, or 'PSNFL'.

According to a House of Commons Library paper, external, citing the Office for National Statistics, PSNFL was equivalent to 83.7% of GDP at the end of July 2026. In July 2025, it had been 83.1%.

The ONS says that the PSNFL figure was estimated at£2.65tn at the end of July 2026., external

Image source, Reuters

Image source, PA Media

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has just been seen leaving No 10, where he earlier hosted a cabinet meeting.

He's due to make a statement to MPs - his first in Parliament since becoming prime minister.

Image source, House of Commons

Nigel Farage has been sworn in as the MP for Clacton following his by-election victory last month.

The Reform UK leader takes the oath, with some laughs and murmurs from MPs in the House of Commons. He then walks over for a brief chat with Speaker Lindsay Hoyle.

As a reminder, Farage resigned as an MP in July after facing intense scrutiny over financial support he has received - triggering a by-election. He won that election with 63.34% of the vote.