London, July 17 (Petra)-- Britain's Labour Party on Friday elected Andy Burnham as its new leader during a special party conference in London, following overwhelming backing from Labour MPs and several trade unions, paving the way for him to succeed Keir Starmer as prime minister on Monday.

According to the BBC, Burnham secured 379 nominations from Labour lawmakers, comfortably surpassing the required threshold of 20 percent of the party's parliamentary members to advance to the final stage of the leadership contest.

With no other candidate meeting the nomination requirements, Burnham was officially declared the elected leader of the UK Labour Party.

//Petra// MF