Andy Burnham Appointed New UK Prime Minister

By Sue Kientz

After months of maneuvering, Labour’s day has come! The Right Honorable Andrew (Andy) Burnham, recent mayor of sprawling Manchester until he was voted in as a member of parliament, making him eligible to head the Labour Party, was now perfectly positioned to succeed Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The newly minted PM spent most of Monday, 20 July 2026, meeting King Charles so the monarch could ceremoniously ask him to form a new government, and then he was off making speeches at various locations including at 10 Downing Street, the PM’s official London residence. (1)

Now the question is, will the new prime minister outlast the abbreviated terms of the previous seven prime ministers that led the United Kingdom in the last decade? This swinging-door parade of British leaders seems indicated in that Burnham takes office with Mercury retrograde (2) at 16 Cancer, which also happens to be opposite (180 degrees; a challenge or illuminating focus) Burnham’s Sun (16 Capricorn). (3) When Mercury is retrograde, and one faces starting a job or task or some important effort during the retrograde period, astrologers warn of redoing or repeating one’s efforts with Mercury, ruler of communication, travel, and consensus, not “behaving” in its normal fashion. (4) Those aware of this oddity tend to avoid the roughly three-week retrograde period and might even refuse to answer email or sign any contracts at such a delicate time. In PM Burnham’s case, he was born at Mercury retrograde (29 Capricorn), and in many ways he has repeated key career efforts just to get this job. In 2017, he resigned from parliament to run for mayor of Greater Manchester, a position he held for nine years until he re-ran for parliament just last June. Without repeating that political contest, he would not be prime minister today. The fact that Mercury, which stations at 16 Cancer and moves forward in just a few days, is opposite Burnham’s Sun, might prove a boon to him, if his awareness is tactfully mindful of the mistakes made by those PMs that did not last long, so as to avoid a similar early exit.

Prime Minister Burnham’s chart has many fortunate, welcome qualities, with Sun (16 Capricorn) sextile (60 degrees; supportive, beneficial) Mars (16 Pisces), indicating he’s someone who has the ability and energy (Mars qualities) to get things done that will be a credit to his reputation (Sun symbol). Yet he’s not a pushover, even with the sextile in feminine signs (Capricorn and Pisces), as his Mercury Retro is semisquare (45 degrees; happier when working, irritated with inaction) his Mars, a sign that he’s unafraid to speak his mind pointedly when needed. Mercury is also trine (120 degrees; trait is easily expressed) Pluto (27 Virgo), an excellent figure for someone who is now in charge, and with Pluto in Virgo, Burnham will expect full details.

This is not to say all is rosy for Burnham, as his Sun is challenged by square aspects (90 degrees; work needed or difficulty follows) with dwarf planet Eris (11 Aries) on one side and Uranus (8 Libra) on the other. They represent those often disenfranchised (Eris issues affect people who feel unheard or “otherized”) (5) by previous administrations, or people or entities that have lacked support like the business and tech sectors (Uranus: those trading in specialized knowledge, machinery, distributed industries, and advanced technological companies). Burnham has expressed acute concern for these constituencies (Eris: his interest in assisting the homeless; Uranus: the need to help businesses with energy and taxation relief, among other matters), and today he reiterated those promises. Solving these thorny problems will require work and striving to adequately fund.  Another dwarf planet, Orcus (16 Virgo), representative of order, aiming for perfection, and making plans, (6) is exactly trine his Sun and opposite his Mars, a combination that could mean he will make trade-offs but will get a good share of what he wants into his government agenda.

When viewing a brand-new leader of a major power like the United Kingdom, one is anxious to know if this person is at the beginning of a consequential period, and for that astrologers may turn to secondary progression, a “slow” pattern that shows the life similarly unfolding, but this pattern from birth has the days representing years. In Andy Burnham’s case, one looks at day 56 after his birth to see his 56^th year, and the resulting pattern does not disappoint. His progressed (p.) Sun (13 Pisces) is entering a multi-year trine with p. Orcus (18 Cancer), suggesting long-term schemes may be realized to his credit (Sun in Pisces imagines what Orcus in Cancer makes happen at home), and could point to a long premiership. Plus, his p. Mercury (28 Aquarius) has moved from restless natal semisquare to cool and collected sextile with p. Mars (28 Aries), signaling that he can easily downshift to a reasonable and balanced style of interaction with friends and rivals, a valued trait in a leader of a respected nation like the United Kingdom, with its vital role in global relations and peacekeeping.

Title Image credit: Burnham image: House of Commons, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons; 10 Downing Street image: Sergeant Tom Robinson RLC/MOD, OGL v1.0OGL v1.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Notes and References

1. Shear, Michael D., “U.K. Updates: Burnham Becomes Prime Minister and Starts Naming New Cabinet,” The New York Times, 20 July 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/07/20/world/uk-prime-minister-burnham-starmer
2. All planets move retrograde, or backwards in degrees as observed from Earth, at some point during their orbit of the Sun. This optical illusion is due to the position of Earth sometimes moving faster than other solar system bodies, so the retrograde object seems to drift backwards in the sky. With Mercury and Venus, their movements around the Sun require them to pass in front of the Sun from Earth’s perspective, which appears as backward motion. Eventually the body “stops” (in astrological terms, “stations”) and resumes forward motion. Sun and Moon never appear to move retrograde.
3. Barnham, Andrew, 7 January 1970, 8 a.m. used (time unknown), London, England, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Burnham
4. Reed, Theresa, “50 Positive Things To Do During Mercury Retrograde,” The Tarot Lady, 18 May 2022, https://www.thetarotlady.com/50-positive-things-mercury-retrograde/
5. Kientz, S., “Eris, the Discomforting Other,” More Plutos, appeared in the Astrological Journal, Sept./Oct. 2014 issue; https://moreplutos.com/articles/Eris-SueKientz_AstrologicalJournal-Sept-Oct2014.pdf
6. See Orcus’s astrological keywords and examples of historical figures at “Dwarf Planet Basics,” 6 November 2024, Astrology News Service, https://astrologynewsservice.com/articles/dwarf-planet-basics/

For more details about the angles or relationships between planets, see Lynne Hyde’s “Astrology Basics,” 12 November 2024, ANS, https://astrologynewsservice.com/articles/astrology-basics/