Andy Burnham has completed a characteristically frenetic first week as Britain's new prime minister, travelling from Scotland to southwest England, speaking with more than a dozen world leaders, and making a series of small but symbolically loaded economic announcements — all before capping the week at a new part-time prime ministerial office in Manchester, 265 kilometres northwest of London.

Burnham, who succeeded Keir Starmer after Starmer was forced out following two years of missteps and plummeting popularity, entered Downing Street on Monday to bright sunshine and without a lectern — a deliberate break from a visual cliché that had come to define a turbulent decade in British politics. His cabinet announcement took longer than expected, suggesting friction behind the scenes. Former chancellor Rachel Reeves was reportedly offered a diminished role and declined. John Healey was appointed chancellor, a choice seen as reassuring to financial markets and NATO allies alike given his previous resignation from Starmer's government over defence spending. Ed Miliband was appointed foreign secretary. The reshuffle was widely read as a clean break from the previous administration.

On Friday, Burnham convened cabinet ministers, senior civil servants and regional mayors at what he is calling