Tuesday briefing: How might Andy Burnham bring his Makerfield magic to Westminster?

Good morning. It seems inevitable that Andy Burnham will become the UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade, after Keir Starmer announced his resignation on Monday morning and, hours later, Burnham’s most likely challenger, Wes Streeting, rowed in behind the former mayor of Greater Manchester . Starmer leaves office barely two years after his landslide victory that swept Labour into power on a mandate of change. Six weeks after the party’s humiliation at the hands of Reform across English councils, and historic defeats to progressive nationalists in the Welsh Senedd and Scottish parliament, Burnham offered the country another “change moment”: winning an emphatic victory over Reform in last week’s Makerfield byelection , cementing the view that he can defeat the hard right at the next general election. As it looks increasingly likely that Burnham will be elected uncontested as Labour leader and hence become prime minister by mid-July, I spoke to our correspondents across the UK about the challenges he’ll face from day one in the job. First, this morning’s headlines. Five big stories UK politics | A generation of young Britons who were locked out of the 2016 EU referendum because of their age now believe that Brexit has failed , with a majority demanding a fresh vote to rejoin the EU, exclusive polling shows. …