Andy Burnham will double down on his vow to unpick the economic settlement of Margaret Thatcher when he delivers his first speech as Labour leader on Friday.
The former mayor of Manchester will be confirmed as Sir Keir Starmer’s replacement unopposed at a special conference in London after he received nominations from almost all the MPs.
With the support of 81 MPs needed to be nominated into the race, only Catherine West received one nomination from fellow MP Neil Coyle, while all the rest bar 26 MPs supported Mr Burnham.
The recently elected MP for Makerfield is due to take over as prime minister on Monday with parliament in recess, which means he will face no scrutiny until September.
Addressing the party in his first speech as leader, Mr Burnham will make it clear that he wants to undo much of the Thatcherite economic settlement in the UK.
The new Labour leader will warn that “Britain took a series of wrong turns in the 1980s” when “political power was centralised and economic power privatised”.
To build an economy and a country that works for all people and places, Mr Burnham will say that it requires “a new path to the one we’ve been on for the last 40 years”.
The speech will also be a repudiation of the legacy of former Labour prime minister Sir Tony Blair, for whom Mr Burnham served as a minister, but accepted the economic legacy of Margaret Thatcher.
Mr Burnham has already warned that “trickle down” economics does not work in a sign that he intends to turn to the left.
While he looks set to pick someone from the right of the party as his new chancellor – the current home secretary Shabana Mahmood – he is also expected to run much of the economic policy through Downing Street.
It has also been claimed that he will look to raise an extra £38bn in tax. Meanwhile, he has not ruled out introducing a wealth tax supported by one of his key lieutenants, Louise Haigh, who is expected to be appointed the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster role running the Cabinet Office, which is the engine of government and focal point for policy.
Mr Burnham will say his government will have the “courage to fix the big things that politics has neglected” and the “conviction to argue for our plans”.
He will also say Labour must give people across Britain “the hope that we will make this country the best it can be” and argue that only a confident Labour government can “lift Britain up” by putting people and places back at the heart of national decision-making.
He will say the government he leads will be authentically Labour and argue that Labour should offer a confident alternative rooted in its own values, with a vision for a ‘distinctively Labour’ programme of economic renewal, more public control, reindustrialisation and power back in the hands of local communities.
The prime minister-in-waiting will also 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”.
Mr Burnham will say that under his leadership Labour will become more united, focused on practical solutions rather than internal division, and more open to working with other parties on the long-term challenges facing the country.
He will commit to being a leader “for the North and the South, for Scotland, for Wales and for Northern Ireland, and for every town and every city in every nation and region of this great country”.
He will also pay tribute to Sir Keir for returning Labour to government, crediting him with taking the party “from its worst electoral defeat in a century to one of the largest election victories in our history”.
He will praise the achievements of the Labour government, including stronger workers’ rights, NHS improvements, investment in public services and the passing of the Hillsborough Law.
