Keir Starmer used a farewell speech to insist he had not been a failure as Prime Minister, declaring "my work is done" shortly before travelling to Buckingham Palace to formally resign to the King. His departure, after little more than two years in Downing Street, paves the way for Andy Burnham to become Britain's seventh Prime Minister in a decade, underlining the political instability that has characterised recent years in Westminster.

In his first remarks as incoming PM, Burnham vowed to "be better" than Starmer and hinted at a shift leftward for the government, though he offered little concrete detail on policy. Attention has already turned to his top team, with speculation over whether Ed Miliband could be named Chancellor amid reported wrangling over senior Cabinet posts, while prisons minister Lord Timpson, who oversaw Labour's contentious early-release scheme, has resigned from government. Burnham, who will be the first openly Catholic Prime Minister, also revealed that his father, who has Alzheimer's, is unaware his son is about to take charge of the country.