Andy Burnham - Prime Minister

BBC NEWS 16 JULY 2026 - WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT ANDY BURNHAM'S POLICIES

Andy Burnham is set to become the UK's prime minister next week, after the vast majority of Labour MPs nominated him to replace Sir Keir Starmer.

It means the former mayor of Greater Manchester will enter Downing Street just weeks after his return to Parliament in the Makerfield by-election last month.

Here is what we know so far about his plans for office.

DEVOLUTION OF POWER

Burnham has promised the biggest-ever "rebalancing of power" away from Whitehall, with English regions handed more control in areas including housing and transport by a new No 10 unit based in Manchester.

The unit would be tasked with promoting "equivalent living conditions" across Britain, borrowing from an idea in the German constitution.

He has also promised new opportunities to extend existing devolution settlements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland by taking power "deeper down".

This could be an area where he looks to build on the policies of the Starmer government, which was in the process of extending regional mayors beyond the main urban areas in England.

Rachel Reeves was also due to set out a roadmap at the next Budget for how regional mayors could be given control of a share of income tax raised in their areas.

WATER AND ENERGY

Burnham has said he wants all parts of the UK to take "greater public control" of the water and energy sectors.

He has suggested this could emulate Greater Manchester's bus network, where private operators bid to run services on a franchise basis, with local authorities controlling fares, timetables and routes.

However, he is yet to spell out what an equivalent model for water and energy companies would mean in practice.

Burnham has been at pains to point out his plans do not necessarily mean full nationalisation of utility firms, a move that would cost many billions of pounds.

One area where he has advocated direct public ownership is Thames Water, a move that is already on the cards after government objected to a proposed rescue deal for the debt-laden company in June.

HOUSING

Burnham has promised the biggest council house building programme "since the post-War period" - implying a large rise in rates of construction compared to recent years. However, he is yet to offer details of how this would be funded.

The pledge would be all the more challenging to meet given that Burnham has promised to stick to the current government's debt and spending rules.

He has also called for the entire 10-year £39bn affordable housing budget for England towards homes for social rent, the cheapest and most heavily subsidised form of publicly-funded housing.

Currently some of the budget goes towards "affordable" housing, where rents are more similar to market rates, as well as affordable home ownership schemes.

He has also expressed a desire to see higher density residential development in towns in order to protect more green spaces from development.

Some of his other policies in this area - including restricting Right to Buy - have already been put in train by the current government.

PERSONAL TAXES

Burnham has said he would stick to Labour's pledge at the last election not to raise the main rates of income tax, VAT or National Insurance, whilst maintaining there is "some room within that manifesto for movement" in other areas.

During his campaign to be re-elected an MP, he also said he wanted to "have a proper look" at potentially raising the £12,570 starting threshold for income tax.

Burnham has previously argued the UK overtaxes work and undertaxes wealth, prompting speculation he could raise capital gains tax - paid on profits made when selling assets such as shares and property aside from a main home.

In one interview, Burnham did not rule out a wealth tax, suggesting his incoming government may have "to ask for a little more" tax at some point.

The Labour MP said he would take time to review the state of the public finances and wanted to focus on "bringing people together" rather than creating "new divisions".

He has previously suggested that both council tax and stamp duty, a tax paid by homebuyers, could be replaced with a new tax on the value of land - an idea he has been advocating since as far back as 2010.

SOCIAL CARE

Burnham has long supported the idea that social care should become a more universal system.

In a speech in 2023, he suggested this could be funded by replacing inheritance tax with a new "national care levy". He has suggested everyone would pay this new tax, whilst "obviously the wealthiest would pay the most".

The Health Foundation think tank estimated in 2024 that an NHS-style model of universal and comprehensive care could cost around £17bn in additional funding by 2035/36.

A cheaper option would be a Scottish-style system, with basic protection for everyone against some care costs, which would cost around £7bn by 2035/36 to replicate in England, according to the think tank.

During his Makerfield campaign, Burnham said he did not "resile" from his previous stance, but is yet to offer further details of how the idea would be implemented.

How to improve England's social care system, where subsidised care is currently reserved for those with the highest needs and fewest assets, is a question that has bedevilled politicians for years.

Labour promised to overhaul the system in opposition, but upon taking office commissioned a review of funding that is not due to report until 2028. Burnham has said he would bring that forward to the end of this year.

IMMIGRATION

Like the Sunak government, Labour has reduced levels of immigration by tightening visa requirements.

During his Makerfield campaign, Burnham said net migration "needs to fall further", although he has not set a specific target.

One area where he could have an internal battle on his hands is over proposals to lengthen the time that foreign nationals already living in the UK would have to wait before they can qualify for permanent residence.

Earlier this year, Burnham urged Labour MPs to heed warnings from the party's former deputy leader Angela Rayner about the impact of the changes.

But when running to be an MP himself, he said he supported the "broad thrust" of the plans, unveiled earlier this year by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.

WELFARE AND EMPLOYMENT

Burnham has said he wants to see a "fair and lasting" reduction to the UK's welfare bill, amid rising spending on health and disability benefits in recent years.

But he has not set out plans to change the level of benefits payments, or how people qualify to receive them.

Instead, he argues the claimant count can be reduced by improving employment support and "in-work" mental health support. He has also said he wants 16 to 18-year-olds to have guaranteed work placements.

Burnham has said he would keep the "triple lock" - a political promise to raise the state pension each year by the highest of inflation, wage increases or 2.5%.

BUSINESS POLICY

Burnham has said he wanted to preserve "sovereign manufacturing" capability in key areas such as steel, defence, energy, and farming, and he wanted to make it easier for British companies to win public contracts.

During the by-election campaign, his team sent out a policy document promising a cut in business rates for pubs and music venues by 20%.

That would be paid for, they said, by higher taxes of out-of-town warehouses used by online retailers like Amazon.

Burnham also wants to raise the threshold at which business rates kick in, taking lots of small high street shops out of paying altogether.

FOREIGN POLICY AND DEFENCE

Burnham has said he would like the UK to rejoin the EU within his lifetime, but he has insisted he does not want to "re-run the [2016] referendum now".

He has pledged to seek a "closer relationship" with European countries, and "consolidate the progress made" on existing negotiations with the EU.

His stance on relations with the EU would soon be put to the test, as he inherits a series of live negotiations on youth visas, food regulations and plans to relink the UK to the EU's carbon pricing regime.

Defence spending, which prompted the resignation of Starmer's defence secretary John Healey earlier in June, would provide another headache.

In one of his final decisions in office, Sir Keir announced a plan to increase military spending by £15bn over the next four years by cutting spending in other parts of government, whilst leaving the details to Burnham to flesh out.

A key challenge would also be how Burnham seeks to handle US President Donald Trump. He has said the UK should seek a "good relationship" with the US, whilst being willing to say "if we can't agree with them".

ELECTORAL REFORM

Burnham has said he would "seek to persuade my own party" of the need to include a pledge in Labour's next election manifesto to replace the UK's first-past-the-post system with a form of proportional representation.

GOV.UK LOGIN

Will the new PM sort out the snags in the Companies House PIN system, which at present is alleged to violate article 13 of the European Convention of Human Rights. There being no article 13 in the UK's 1998 Act. Will Andy amend the 1998 Act, to give the British public an effective remedy. The remedy taken away from them, to be sure the electorate had little say in what is happening in the UK?

THE GUARDIAN 23 JUNE 2026 - WHO IS LIKELY TO BE IN OR OUT OF A BURNHAM CABINET?

Big hitters such as Miliband, Mahmood and Streeting are seen as in line for the top jobs; others face an abrupt end to their ministerial careers

By mid-July, as now seems almost inevitable, we will have a new prime minister in Andy Burnham. He will, of course, then pick his own cabinet. So who will – and won’t – make it to the top table of the former Greater Manchester mayor?

DEFINITELY

Ed Miliband
Will he be Burnham’s chancellor? He is certainly among the possibilities, and Miliband allies are touting the idea. Even if not, the energy secretary is a Labour heavyweight and no Keir Starmer fan, so a job in the new cabinet feels inevitable.

Shabana Mahmood
Under different circumstances, Mahmood could be running to become Labour’s first (permanent) female leader. She is not, and there is much speculation she might even be kept in her current job of home secretary, where her hardline policies and rhetoric on immigration might be seen by Team Burnham as tempering his more left-leaning policies.

Wes Streeting
As above: didn’t run, endorsed Burnham and would now like a big job in return. Streeting is among others tipped for chancellor, although he is a mere six weeks out of the health job he resigned from in protest against Starmer, so could return. If Burnham wanted to simultaneously reward and sideline a rival, there is always the Foreign Office.

Angela Rayner
The former deputy prime minister and communities secretary left government last September after a mix-up over £40,000 in unpaid stamp duty but in May she was cleared by HMRC of any deliberate wrongdoing or carelessness, and as a leading figure on Labour’s left will almost certainly be back.

Lou Haigh
The first cabinet casualty of the Starmer era, Haigh resigned as transport secretary in November 2024 after it emerged she had been convicted of fraud over a missing work phone. The circumstances are, Haigh’s allies insist, less murky than this would indicate, and as one of Burnham’s main organisers, she will expect to come back to the cabinet.

Anneliese Midgley
The Knowsley MP has been in parliament for only two years, but has a long background as a Labour organiser, and has played a central role in Burnham’s push for No 10. As such she seems set for a move to the front of the frontbench.

Sally Jameson
Yet another member of the group of influential northern female MPs around Burnham, Jameson has represented Doncaster since 2024. Like Midgley, she has no ministerial experience but does have a background in Labour politics – as well as working for a period as a prison officer.

Yvette Cooper
The foreign secretary is hugely experienced and knows Burnham well from his last stint in parliament – Burnham finished marginally above her in second place in the 2015 Labour leadership contest. She is thus expected to stay in cabinet if not necessarily in the same job.

Lisa Nandy
The culture secretary has felt somewhat detached from the Starmer government and she is more ideologically aligned to Burnham. Her Wigan constituency even borders his in Makerfield.

Douglas Alexander
The Scotland secretary was brought back into the cabinet by Starmer when he returned to parliament after a nine-year gap but he is an experienced hand, having served in the Blair and Brown cabinets.

Miatta Fahnbulleh
Another 2024 entrant but with her background as an economist and thinktanker she was immediately brought into government by Starmer. With close links to Ed Miliband, she is an outside bet for chancellor.

Jonathan Reynolds
Open about the fact he disliked being moved from the business brief to become chief whip, Reynolds missed Starmer’s No 10 departure and was very obviously on view when Burnham posed with MPs later on Monday.

MAYBE

Nick Thomas-Symonds
The Cabinet Office minister with responsibility for renewed links with Europe, Thomas-Symonds is close to Starmer. But with a postponed major EU summit looming for Burnham, might he stay in the same job?

Rachel Reeves
A big hitter, not least as the UK’s first female chancellor, and she did attend Burnham’s Westminster Hall rally on Monday. But her future in government is not at all clear.

Darren Jones
Jones is a key figure in the Starmer firmament, as shown by his specially created job of chief secretary to the prime minister and his appearance in Downing Street to hear Starmer resign. But he is considered an effective government operator so may find a role.

John Healey
The final departure from Starmer’s government over his worries about the defence investment plan. Might he be back, in defence or another job? It’s not impossible.

Bridget Phillipson
By no means on the Burnham bandwagon but Phillipson is not overly tribal and her allies believe she has a case for staying in her education brief, where she has carefully shepherded tricky plans over Send provision, or getting another job.

David Lammy
The justice secretary and deputy PM is clearly a major figure in the current government. He is close to Starmer, standing front and centre of Monday’s Downing Street farewell crowd, before defending the PM’s legacy in TV interviews. Can he make the transition?

Dan Jarvis
As of just under a fortnight ago, the defence minister in place of John Healey, Jarvis will seemingly push the defence investment plan over the line before the change of PM. He might then be expected to return to a more junior ministerial role.

DON'T LOOK BACK IN ANGER

Steve Reed
The communities secretary is the ultimate Starmer loyalist, as far back as co-founding Labour Together, the internal thinktank that led the Starmer project. He will be awaiting a return to the backbenches.

Richard Hermer
He was essentially made attorney general because, as a close friend, Starmer knew and trusted him, and he was loyal to the end. A peer, he will return to work in the upper house and in his legal career.

Peter Kyle
The minister who in effect confirmed Starmer’s downfall on the Sunday broadcast round by saying he would not be “delusional” and say otherwise, the business secretary has no particular ties to Team Burnham and will be under no illusions.

Liz Kendall
A similar situation faces the science and technology secretary. She is on the right of the party, is not part of the Burnham gang, and will almost certainly be replaced.

James Murray
Shifted from the Treasury to take Streeting’s place as health secretary, Murray will be in the job long enough to get his picture added to the ministerial wall but that will be about it.

Keir Starmer
There has been some chatter about Burnham showing continuity by, for example, letting Starmer continue his Trump-whispering as foreign secretary. This is almost certainly not going to happen: neither man wants it, and Starmer will most likely be focused on a long summer holiday.

WHAT A PLANK - Who would sanction a PIN system that does not work? You guessed it, Kier Starmer, former human rights advocate sold out to GCHQ, actively discriminating against genuine company directors, with huge fines for mistakes that Companies House appears to be deliberately engineering to grab fines for late filing and increased fees for paper filings; allegedly. And that violates Article 13 and 14 of the European Convention. The UK deliberately omitted Article 13, so that they could do anything and get away with it. But, have they?

ANDY BURNHAM'S LABOUR PARTY CABINET 2026?

...

FOSSIL FOOLS - Geriatric politicians with 'climate-senile' policies will find in difficult to break away from their corrupt ways, as part time politicians with two jobs. Their main job being to find paid consultancy work, rather than craft policies and create statute that works to protect our voters from lung cancer, energy shortages and a lack of affordable (sustainable) housing.

The 'zerophobics' are the undertakers of the political world, sending millions of ordinary people to an early grave, while loading us with NHS, hospital and staff costs that would not be needed if we had clean air in our cities.

Basically, the longer you are in politics, the more likely you are to be exposed to bribes, from climate deniers, mostly fossil fuel and energy companies, looking to keep on pumping toxic fumes into the atmosphere, so they can keep making money. The political undertakers are working with them to keep hospitals stocked with cancer victims, adding to the £Trillions we owe as part of the national debt. Under Boris and Rishi Sunack, pensioner's saving have halved in real terms. They are blood sucking vampires, draining what little you had saved for your retirement.

CONTACT ANDY BURNHAM

Westminster Office
House of Commons

London, SW1A 0AA

Tel: 020 7219 5437

NATIONAL DEBT - CONSERVATIVE ROGUES GALLERY

British politicians and politics was never this exciting, but thanks to Jeffrey Epstein's emails, a whole lot of gossip behind the financial scenes just became unzipped public knowledge. We wonder what else got unzipped? With former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, also accused of misconduct in public office, allegedly?

LINKS & REFERENCE

https://metro.co.uk/2026/07/16/will-andy-burnhams-cabinet-mahmood-set-chancellor-29151139/

https://metro.co.uk/2026/07/16/will-andy-burnhams-cabinet-mahmood-set-chancellor-29151139/

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/23/in-or-out-burnham-cabinet-ed-miliband-shabana-mahmood-wes-streeting

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/23/in-or-out-burnham-cabinet-ed-miliband-shabana-mahmood-wes-streeting

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clywzj2vk3zo

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clywzj2vk3zo