UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham used his first statement in the House of Commons to promise a package of reforms, from a review of the electoral system and the rules on political donations to stronger public control of the water sector and an overhaul of social care.
The statement was delivered on 1 September 2026, six weeks after Burnham replaced Keir Starmer as prime minister. He took 125 questions from MPs and set out the government’s direction after the summer recess.
Since the 1980s, he said, the country had taken “a series of wrong turns”: political power was centralised, economic power privatised, the regions deindustrialised, and Brexit locked in a decade of weak growth. “Unless we are blunt about what went wrong, we won’t turn things around,” Burnham told MPs.
The prime minister confirmed he was prepared to look at electoral reform, including moving away from first-past-the-post. He said he would not change the voting system before the next general election, which must be held by 2029. Any shift to proportional representation, he added, would depend on a consensus among parties after that election.
On party funding, the government is already advancing an annual £100,000 cap on donations from British citizens living overseas and a ban on cryptocurrency donations. A universal cap on domestic donors is not included in the forthcoming elections bill. Burnham did not rule out returning to the issue before 2029 and said regulation of large donations needed to go further.
He described the water industry as “a leaking monument” to a model in which the country is run in private rather than public interests. He pointed to a lack of reservoir capacity, summer supply disruptions and sewage spills. A 10-year plan for Britain, to be published later this year, will set out stronger public control over water, housing, energy and transport. Full nationalisation has not been announced; different ownership models are under consideration.
On social care, Burnham restated his commitment to a deep reform and a national care service modelled on the NHS, so that people would not have to sell their homes to pay for care. Cross-party talks began in the summer, and a review of the system has been brought forward from 2028 to 2027. He called the issue personal and said he was prepared to invest political capital in it.
The wider frame of the statement was a redistribution of power away from Westminster. Burnham offered new devolution deals, including for Cornwall “with or without an elected mayor,” and said Number 10 North in Manchester would become a single front door for the regions into Whitehall.