Hopes, doubts and demands as Burnham takes power

By the time I arrived at Downing Street on Monday morning, the narrow street was already packed with journalists, photographers and broadcasters awaiting the transfer of power from Keir Starmer to Andy Burnham, the United Kingdom's seventh prime minister in a decade.

I had arrived three hours before Burnham's scheduled speech, but I was too late. A security guard told me every media position had been allocated last week. We were not getting in.

Outside the gates, the crowd continued to swell. Journalists without accreditation lingered in hope, protesters unfurled banners, and passersby paused for a glimpse of the new prime minister.

Then a question struck me: everyone inside would hear Burnham's speech, but who was listening to the people outside?

We turned our attention to the crowd, speaking not with politicians or officials, but with ordinary people who had come to witness Britain's latest change of leadership.

A retired landscape architect said he was there to campaign for the UK to rejoin the European Union.

"Because of Brexit, we've lost between 6 and 8 percent of GDP," he said. "We've got a new prime minister who has said he'd like us to rejoin the EU. We can persuade him to get on with it."

An artist displaying a satirical painting lamented the frequent leadership changes.

"I've seen many prime ministers, and it doesn't matter what they were doing — their policies need stability," he said. "Every one or two years we get a new prime minister, and that's not a good sign.

"The country is in a mess — socially, economically and politically — and is going downward. Someone has to stop that," he added.

Nearby, campaigners staged a symbolic performance. Wearing a cartoon mask of Burnham, one member used a long-handled brush to sweep the street as part of the "Clean Up Westminster" campaign.

The group's leader said they wanted to reduce the influence of money in politics.

"We are here to encourage the new prime minister to keep his promise to limit how much money any individual or organization can give to a political party," he said, referring to a recent investigation into an undisclosed $6.7 million donation linked to the leader of Reform UK.

Later, I met a couple from Suffolk, where Reform UK secured a major victory in May's local elections.

"We hope (Burnham) does a good job, but he's not elected," they said, adding that the change of Labour Party leader lacked a direct mandate from voters.

Their main concerns were immigration, the cost-of-living crisis and poverty. "We need a general election so people can have their say on whom they want as their prime minister," they said.

"So if there were a general election, would you vote for him?" I asked.

"No," the husband replied, before repeating, "No."

Afterward, I met another couple from Ashton-in-Makerfield, where Burnham won last month's by-election, securing the parliamentary seat that paved the way to No 10 Downing Street. Burnham defeated the second-placed Reform UK candidate by about 9,000 votes.

The wife said they had interacted with Burnham during the campaign because "he was there nearly every day".

"He's very humble, very down-to-earth, and he's very much for ordinary working-class people," she said. "He wants to improve social housing and things like that.

"We've got a lot of hopes for him."

In the end, I never made it inside Downing Street that morning.

But perhaps the story was only half told if it focused solely on the new prime minister's speech in front of the famous black door. The other half unfolded outside — in the hopes, frustrations, doubts and demands of ordinary Britons.

The author is a correspondent at China Daily Europe based in London.