🔴Watch live: UK’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham speaks outside 10 Downing Street

Former Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham was named the UK’s new prime minister Monday after being asked by King Charles III to form a government.

Andy Burnham on Monday became Britain's seventh prime minister in a decade with an in-tray overflowing with challenges that have trounced his predecessors. The new leader takes over from the unpopular Keir Starmer just two years after the outgoing prime minister led Labour to power in a landslide election victory after 14 years of Conservative rule. Starmer made his farewell speech outside 10 Downing Street, telling supporters that "my work is ‌done" and that he was leaving with "good grace" and a "smile". King Charles III asked Burnham to be prime minister after Starmer formally tendered his resignation.

In his first speech as prime minister, Burnham will set out "priorities for restoring confidence in government and giving Britain more breathing room" amid the cost-of-living crisis, his team said. Delivering growth and devolving power to regional communities are also expected to feature.

An announcement on his senior cabinet appointments is also expected on Monday with all eyes on who will replace Rachel Reeves as finance minister. The former mayor of Greater Manchester, nicknamed the "King of the North", has been parachuted in by the Labour Party, after Starmer resigned last month, with MPs viewing him as the party's best chance of reining in Nigel Farage's anti-immigration Reform UK party. Deputy Labour Party leader Lucy Powell said on Sunday Burnham's mayoral experience away from the London centre of government meant he understood the "bigger, bolder" challenges ahead.