Emotional PM Burnham vows to build a new Britain

UK prime minister Andy Burnham spoke about his late father and detailed his long-term ambitions to establish free social care, reform the electoral system and controversially adjust pensions. (EPA Images pic)

LIVERPOOL: UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham promised greater public control over essential services Tuesday as he vowed to reverse decades of privatisation and rebuild Britain during an emotional first speech as leader to his Labour party's annual gathering.

The 56-year-old former mayor of Manchester -- in office for just 10 weeks -- choked back tears as he spoke about his late father and detailed his long-term ambitions to establish free social care, reform the UK's electoral system and controversially adjust pensions.

"I accept people will not agree with every part of it, but I believe it can turn Britain around," Burnham told a packed audience in Liverpool, who punctuated his hour-long address with numerous standing ovations.

At one point Burnham had to pause, swallowing tears before he talked about his father who died earlier this month from Alzheimer's.

"I'm going to use this job to build the kind of Britain my dad wanted to see and fight with everything I've got to keep it together."

He then launched into an impassioned defence of his plans to introduce free social care in England for people who need help living with illness or disabilities.

"I accept I may pay a political price. But someone has to go through the pain barrier and rip the plaster off," he said, acknowledging the difficulties of introducing a new system.

Burnham has re-energised the centre-left party since MPs parachuted him into Downing Street in July ending Keir Starmer's two-year premiership, dominated by numerous domestic policy missteps and infighting.

But he has been under pressure to lay out how he plans to pay for lofty pledges, including the reindustrialisation of the country, an end to rough sleeping, and building thousands of new council houses.

It comes as the UK economy, like many European countries, is weighed down by insipid growth and soaring borrowing costs, while Britons get squeezed by high energy prices exacerbated by wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

The prime minister must also find billions of pounds for the UK's defence to meet NATO commitments.

'Break with past'

During his speech, Burnham told Labour MPs and activists that greater public control over housing, energy and water, coupled with more powers for local leaders, would help spur Britain's struggling economy.

"I will make a break with the direction of the past 40 years and put Britain on a new path, build a new economy and a new politics," said Burnham, the UK's seventh prime minister in a decade.

He said his government would soon introduce a bill to repeal 1979-1990 prime minister Margaret Thatcher's "ideological ban on public ownership of water companies".

Burnham vowed to build a "National Care Service" that would be "free at the point of use", although not until after the next general election, expected in 2029.

"It's something that I've always wanted to hear from a prime minister. So honest, a lot of energy, saying things that are not popular," business owner Ralitsa Vasilovska, 39, told AFP.

'Brexit harm'

The Health Foundation think-tank estimates that a National Health Service-style social care system could end up costing almost £19 billion ($25 billion) a year.

To pay for the plans, Burnham said he would campaign at the next election on changing how pensions rise, a bold move that right-wing parties immediately labelled as an attack on the elderly.

"By potentially scrapping the triple lock, Andy Burnham will abdicate his responsibility to British pensioners," said Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party.

Since becoming prime minister on July 20, Burnham has sought to offer a more optimistic tone, strengthening his friendly public image.

Labour's conference slogan is "Hope Again" and delegates are more upbeat than in the past two years when recriminations flew over several policy U-turns.

But a new YouGov poll Tuesday showed the party had slipped back behind rival Reform, which had 25 percent of voting intentions to Labour's 24 percent.

Burnham announced a new government body to invest in Britain's electricity grid, in an attempt to bring high energy costs down.

He also said he would put forward "different options" for future ties with the European Union around a planned summit later this year, saying Britain's departure from the bloc following a contentious vote in 2016 had done "more harm than good".

"I thought it was a tour de force," 56-year-attendee Laura Parker said of Burnham's speech, calling it "energetic" and "authentic".

Trade unionist, Margaret Greer, told AFP: "I thought it was inspirational actually. I thought he really spoke from the heart."