Britain's fifth prime minister in four years

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

0:06Hello and welcome to News Hour. It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service studios in central London. I'm Tim Franks. We're beginning with a new beginning for Britain. Another new beginning. Andy Burnham, after all, has just in the past couple of hours become Britain's fifth Prime Minister in four years. It's seventh in ten years. In the country's long history of parliamentary democracy, a leftist-centred party such as the Labour Party has not had many goes at governing. And so despite winning a vast parliamentary majority just two years ago, those hundreds of Labour MPs took fright at terrible interim election results, appalling opinion poll ratings, the sustained rise of a surging populist right-wing party, and decided to force out the Labour leader and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and to crown a new man, Andy Burnham, who's only just returned to Parliament after a long stint as the Mayor of Greater Manchester.

1:04In this programme, we'll look at what we can expect in the UK and abroad, and also at what he, Andy Burnham, can expect as he walks through that black door of a terraced house in central London, No. 10 Downing Street. But before his entrance, there needed to be an exit. And so an hour and a half before, Keir Starmer had emerged to say... My work is done. In six and a half years, I took our party from a historic defeat in 2019, changed it so it was fit to face the country and won a landslide general election victory in 2024. Since then, it has been the privilege of my life to serve you and this great country as Prime Minister.

1:52And I am confident that Britain is now stronger and fairer than it was two years ago. But Britain had also, it seemed pretty clear, seen enough of this particular Prime Minister. So 90 minutes after that short speech in Downing Street came the next one. Andy Burnham began by acknowledging the fact that a new British Prime Minister these days is not such a novelty. I know people at home are fed up with politics. I hear you and I want to be honest with you. We have not been good enough and we need to be better. We will be. We will make this moment a circuit breaker for Britain, bringing forward the biggest changes in the last 40 years.

2:45A new political model and a new economic model. A new political model and a new economic model. That is big talk, and we'll try to find out what that might actually mean from one of his supporters very soon. But he ended that speech, Andy Burnham, in Downing Street a short while ago with this appeal to a sceptical electorate. It's about putting the right values and the right standards at the heart of government. I will put the care of people at the heart of everything I do. I will give this my all and I ask you all to pull with me. Let's build a new national sense of unity, of common purpose and positivity.

3:37Let us make this the moment when Britain starts to believe again. The moment we bring back hope. Thank you very much, everybody.

3:51Andy Burnham among supporters in Downing Street just a short while ago. Rob Watson has been in Downing Street all day. He's our political correspondent. Rob, you've seen a few of these events. What struck you? I'm still in Downing Street, Tim, looking at the shiny black door and all the activity going on behind it. We'll perhaps come to that in a minute. One of the things that struck me to start with was the similarities, really, with some of the themes in Keir Starmer's speech and in the other speeches that I heard from the other six predecessors over these last 10 years. In other words, that sense of acknowledging that the voters have lost trust in the system, in politicians, that it all needs to be done differently and that there needs to be a new vision of how we all get along in this country.

4:41So, in other words, it was more that there are these familiar themes that we had it from Keir Starmer and now we've had it from Andy Burnham. I suppose the other thing that I would pick out from it is that you get a sort of sense of the direction of where his political home, where he's politically comfortable, and that is like a lot of European politicians of the left. He's very much someone who thinks that state intervention, the state, is good. and that his focus would be very much on those who are least well off in society. A lot was made of the fact, not by you, you've barely mentioned it or haven't mentioned it, but the fact that he was speaking for the first time in living memory without a lectern, but that idea that he was sort of trying to communicate directly to the British people, I suppose it's going to be tough for him, though, to get over what he did acknowledge, which was the sort of the measure of indifference that must be baked in now to the electorate.

5:36Yes, and he began by not dodging the question that he was the seventh prime minister in 10 years by saying we need to show the world we can regain our stability. And what I really meant to say and the first answer, I should have added it in at the end, was, you know, you get these kind of big themes in the speeches and they always, Prime Minister's always at their start of their time in office, talk of optimism, bringing people together. At this point, it's about delivery, right? I mean, you know, you raised the issue there. Great speech. He delivers them well. But I think at this point, the voters are so sort of cynical, so skeptical, that you could give whatever speech you like in Downing Street.

6:18I think most of them, they fade from memory, whether you had a lectern or not, nobody cares. at this point it's will people feel different. So what do you think, Rob, his earliest test will be? So the earliest test will just not be making any mistakes. I think it was President Obama whose advice to people in dealing with politics is just don't do anything dumb. I think he put it in slightly fruitier language than that, Tim. So it's avoid any obvious mistakes. And it's to see who he appoints into the key positions. And he's promised in the short term to try and sort of tackle the sense that people have in Britain, that living standards are really being squeezed, what will he announce in the next 24 hours?

6:57Because he said he will take some short-term measures. Rob Watson in Downing Street, thank you very much as ever. Polly Billington is a senior member of the Parliamentary Labour Party. She's the MP for East Thanet on the southeastern coast of England. She was an early supporter of the idea of Keir Starmer leaving office and Andy Burnham taking over, and she joins me live now from her constituency. Polly, thank you very much for your time here on NewsHour. What's the first thing you want to see from Andy Burnham? Well, I'm delighted about the way that Andy has outlined why he wants to be Prime Minister and what he will do now he is Prime Minister.

7:37It's particularly important. It is emphasised not only the list of things that we understand people are experiencing, which we've gone over and over over the last couple of years, the pressure on the cost of living, the feeling of insecurity and the lack of growth. And this instead started talking about why this is the case. He's identified some of the root causes and those go back 20, 30, 40 years. And that's something that we haven't had for the last couple of years. We've had a description, but we've not had an analysis of the causes. Once you understand the causes, you can start to talk about how you're going to address them.

8:15And I think also it was important that of all the things he talked about right today, it was very much about hope and security and change and the fact that there has been those long-term problems. But the specific thing that he said he would address is rough sleeping. Now, some people will say, well, I'm not a rough sleeper. What's it got to do with me? It is so symbolic of the way that the state, and Rob was talking about how Andy, as a left-wing politician, believes in the power of the state. It's so symbolic as a sign of state failure when we have people and societal failure when we have people sleeping on the streets of our country, which is actually a comparatively wealthy country in the world.

9:00So promising to address that is really important. Yeah, but he's also, I mean, he's got a huge number of other things. And it's not to say that looking after those without a home to stay in is not important. He's got a huge number of other things, from a massive hole in the defence budget, the defence commitments to, you know, taking on some of Britain's nationalised, non-nationalised, privately owned utilities, but taking them under public control. They're debt laden and not working very well. All sorts of things about fixing social care, building government owned social housing. I mean, these are huge, huge projects that will demand an enormous amount of money.

9:42He hasn't really explained where that money is coming from. Well, no, because he's only been in five minutes. I mean, almost literally. But he's made lots of commitments. What he's done is he's outlined what is wrong and what needs to change. And then he will outline a plan. and he said that he will do that, a 10-year plan for national renewal, which will require all of us to put our shoulders to the wheel because it is, as he also pointed out, a team sport. And that's important too because, yes, it will be about making sure that we are growing the economy so that there is more money around in order to be able to invest.

10:16It's also about making sure that people have more money in their pockets and that we don't have a situation where monopolies are privatised and therefore extract money from the British public rather than invest in the infrastructure that we require, which is one of the reasons why he has emphasised again and again why our utilities in particular need to change, particularly around ownership and control. But you'll understand why, and it's not to say it's not the right thing to do, but talk of tenure plans and putting more money in people's pockets and making the economy grow. So it's really tough, isn't it?

10:52Because if that was simply the case that, you know, it's a matter of will, then every other prime minister who's been talking about this over the last 10 years would have delivered. Him saying that there's been a sort of perhaps a political failure over the last 40 years with neoliberalism isn't going to cut it, is it? Well, I think what's interesting is that you suggest that if it was only a matter of political will, then other people would have done it. is not just a matter of political will. It is actually about understanding the root causes so that when you are presented with a number of options, you understand which ones are most likely to make the difference and that you choose the option based on your values as well as the outcomes that you're looking for.

11:35And what we have had more recently is the suggestion that micro-adjustments are clearly and self-evidently, rationally obvious which ones they might be and that they won't have other unintended consequences along the way. What's important to understand about Andy is that he has already been a proven politician, not just local level as mayor of Greater Manchester, our second biggest city in England, but also that he has been, in fact, a cabinet member three times over in a previous Labour administration. He is not unused to making difficult decisions and understanding how those decisions interact with each other and therefore why it is that growth, cutting the cost of living and investment in national security, our democratic resilience and our public services are all vital for us to be able to have the decade of national renewal that we actually need.

12:28You think he's going to be ready and willing to take unpopular decisions in a word? Well, obviously, all politicians have to make unpopular decisions. You don't come into this to spend all of your time in a ticker tape parade. That's not the way this works. Things will be tough. We acknowledge, everybody knows that things are tough in the UK. That's why we need somebody who believes in both security and hope for everybody. Polly Billington, MP for East Thanet and also Vice Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party. Thank you very much for joining us here on News Air.

13:04And coming up on the programme, it's been the biggest World Cup ever. How will the fans look back on it? they will look at getting a higher car and trying to park near a ground for$250 at its worst. They will look at the ticket prices. They will look at the dynamic element. They'll look at the secondary market. They'll look at FIFA's involvement in that. They'll look at the influence, local influence on games. It's now a game of four quarters with the hydration breaks, which were blatantly commercial. We'll have more on World Cup, which ended yesterday with Spain winning, beating Argentina. The Spanish victorious Spanish team have just touched down back in Madrid.

13:50More on that in 30 minutes.

14:04This is NewsHour. It's live from the BBC in London. I'm Tim Franks. There's been a ninth night of strikes in the Middle East. Donald Trump saying Iran had been hit very hard, the Iranian military continuing to target US bases in the Gulf. And yet at the same time, both sides are also talking about the possibility of negotiations, of a diplomatic solution. Yolande Nell is our Middle East correspondent in Jerusalem. Yolande, how are you reading the mixed signals we're getting? Well, I mean, first of all, there's been this weekend of intense exchanges of fire. At least three US soldiers killed in Jordan and in Iraq as a result of Iranian military action there.

14:44The US military says that it hit Iran in its latest strikes attacking military command centers, missile drone launch sites. It said its strikes are meant to degrade Iran's military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. And the reports that we've been getting from Iran are of explosions, including in Bashir, where the only Iranian civilian nuclear plant is located. Iran's state-run news agency reporting that the U.S. strikes killed at least one person around Tabriz, which is where there are believed to be underground missile bases. And once again, Kuwait and Bahrain, home of U.S.

15:23air bases and the U.S. Naval Fifth Fleet, respectively, they came under fire as a result of Iran's retaliation. So you can see that on the one hand, things are really ratcheting up, Tim. The pattern that has been going on is that the two sides sort of, you know, getting closer to all out war in many ways. And really, last month's interim deal that was meant to permanently stop the fighting has pretty much fallen apart. And then when you look at shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, that has largely stopped maritime security officials confirming earlier that a vessel was adrift with a fire on board after being hit by a projectile off the Omani coast.

16:01And Iran claims to have hit two oil tankers on the southern side of the waterway saying that they had taken an unsafe route. So there have also been other signs the conflict could widen further with the US reportedly bringing more warplanes to the region. But as you said, there are also, you know, in the past few hours, some signs of possible diplomacy. Certainly the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying that Washington is open to that. And then Iran has also confirmed that it's been receiving proposals and ideas from different mediators aimed at reducing tensions. Qatar's apparently proposed a 10-day ceasefire.

16:44And the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said earlier that the country's diplomatic efforts were continuing alongside the response of its armed forces. Yolande Nell in Jerusalem, thank you very much for bringing us up to date so comprehensively on what is happening. in that part of the world. Now, protests are continuing in Ukraine over President Zelensky's decision to sack his defence minister because of a major dispute with the country's commander-in-chief. Mikhail Fedorov had only been in office for six months, and he left with many tasks still untackled, not least a growing crisis when it comes to conscription.

17:25After four and a half gruelling years of Russia's invasion, it's harder to fight men to harder to find men who want to fight and attempts to force them to the front line are sparking a backlash with recruitment officers themselves increasingly coming under attack. Our Eastern Europe correspondent Sarah Rainsford sent this report from Kiev. I've been through the basmata, kleshilevka. Vasil Krupich has survived some of the harshest battles in eastern Ukraine. As we talk, the machine gunner sends me videos from his phone of soaking wet and muddy trenches and the constant explosions. He describes how a Russian drone hit his car and he was badly injured.

18:15He still has nightmares about the friends he couldn't save. Then, last December, Vasil was attacked by his own countrymen. He was on military patrol checking for draft dodgers when two men refused to show their documents and fled. Vasil gave chase and was badly beaten. He hit me in the side with a crowbar and broke my rib. I was lying there and couldn't breathe. What did we fight for if soldiers can now get beaten? The attack on Vasil was not a one-off. This month in Lviv, some 200 protesters surrounded the car of another military draft patrol. They smashed it with bricks and then they rolled it over.

19:08Back in April, several recruiters were stabbed. The National Police Service has recorded more than 600 assaults so far. It's not something Ukraine is used to discussing. Admitting any weakness is dangerous when you're fighting for survival under relentless Russian attack. But this issue has become impossible to ignore. My name is Ivan Stupak, I'm a former officer of the security service of Ukraine. Military analysts like Ivan say the violence isn't just fueled by fear of the front line, the fact that every Ukrainian now knows someone who's been killed. It's also a backlash against how the military hunts for recruits.

19:46We start suffering lack of manpower on the battlefield. Less people like to join armed forces, but we are suffering constant losses, unfortunately. Military command have to refill these losses and started this program called busification. When the people just stop on the street, document check, move it to the bus. Busification sounds like this. Panic and anger as men in uniform drag civilians into buses. My name is Ahdansky Kirill. All my life I was a teacher. For every recruiter who's attacked, there are many more stories of violence by the draft teams themselves. I was near my house. Some man in civil dress just stopped me and said to me, give me your military document.

20:45Yes, it's a drone. We can go to a safety place if you need. I mean, it's a bit close for comfort. It is, isn't it? We break off, hearing a Russian drone overhead. Yes, yes. Yes, no problem.

21:01The professor continues inside.

21:27He just beat me. Kirillow shows me photos from after that attack, his face covered in bruises. He was hesitant about speaking out. He tells me Russian propaganda uses such things very actively. But then, if everyone here is silent, he wonders, how will it stop? President Zelenskyy has condemned the rioters in Lviv for attacking the men who defend their country. And he's called on officials to push ahead with reforms, including those meant to make military service more attractive, like better contracts and pay. But he has also sacked the defence minister, who is in charge of that. So Ukraine still has veterans like Vasil on draft duty.

22:17Men who've been through hell and now hunt for those desperate to avoid it. Our lads need replacing, but nobody volunteers. Everyone is afraid to die. After four and a half years of all-out war, Ukraine's conscription problem is growing. And the anger that just exploded in Lviv suggests the need to address it is urgent.

22:44And that was Sarah Rainsford, our Eastern Europe correspondent, responding from, responding, reporting even, from Kiev. Much more to come on the next 30 minutes in this edition of NewsHour. Do stay with us if you can.

23:04How did a boycott Jimmy become a billionaire from posting videos? On Good Bad Billionaire, we're going to find out how the world's most popular YouTuber, Mr Beast, made his fortune. He's buried himself in a coffin for days. Counted to 100 ,000 on camera. And even recreated Squid Games, all in an attempt to go viral on the internet. But it all started when he gave a homeless man$10 ,000. So is he a philanthropist reshaping capitalism? Or is he just the king of the attention economy? Find out on Good Bad Billionaire. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

23:38Welcome back to News Ab. The high global price of gold is indirectly fuelling a global crisis, environmentalists are arguing, from deforestation in the Amazon to the wholesale poisoning of fish stocks in the Mekong River. Gold has more than doubled in value over the last couple of years and it's spawned a surge in illegal gold mining in some of the world's poorest countries. Ed Butler has this report from Sierra Leone in West Africa. We're in a place called Komoro, which is just like a huge bowl in the middle of the forest. But in the middle of this valley is this huge shanty. It's like some scene from a battlefield.

24:16You can hear the machines. There are literally hundreds of people here, all digging, sifting, dreaming. We do illegal mining. Filter the mold, pound it. From there, we got what we want, which is the gold. That's Kelly Mbaio. He's a local gold miner in Sierra Leone running a small team here. Job facility in this country is low. So most of the youth, they came here just to make ends meet. It's a place for survival. And do you use mercury to refine the gold? I do use mercury every day. It's not good for the environment here? I know. Mercury is not good for the environment and it's an illegal substance.

25:00Without no mercury, there is no gold. Mercury has been the bane of artisanal mining for years. If spread into the food chain, experts say that mercury can attack the nervous system, the kidneys, cause irreversible brain damage. Some 40 % of global mercury pollution, the UN reckons, now comes from small-scale gold mining. The problem is that the tough economics of these poor countries means that illegal workers understand the risks but say they have no choice but to go to the mines. There's no work in this country. The calamity work is too dangerous. It's dangerous. Yes, anything can happen. You can hear some people have died.

25:45I'm afraid, but what can I do? I can't do anything. A human being cannot protect us. All is gold. Illicit gold mining really is a global phenomenon. We see it across Latin America, across Africa, across Asia. Marcina Hunter is the director of extractives at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime. The market is immense in the billions of dollars and it is having severe environmental impacts and undermines governance and security. From miners mining without a license to organised crime groups. We certainly are seeing drug cartels moving into the gold sector. Colombian law enforcement in particular has said that the gold sector is now more profitable than the cocaine sector.