Andy Burnham became British Prime Minister on Monday, July 20, after Keir Starmer formally offered his resignation to King Charles III. Taking the position, the new Labour Party leader said his government will be “a circuit breaker for Britain, bringing forward the biggest changes in the last 40 years”.

Known as the ‘King of the North’, Burnham had been the Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. He left the position in June after winning the Makerfield by-election, marking his return to parliament. Burnham was previously an MP for Leigh from 2001 to 2017, when he held several cabinet positions, including Secretary of State for Health under Gordon Brown from 2009 to 2010.

The 56-year-old has a long record of LGBTQ+ allyship, dating back to the ‘80s. As a student activist, he marched against Margaret Thatcher’s Section 28 legislation, which banned the “promotion” of homosexuality in schools. He later said that opposition to the law helped shape his politics, and in 2003, he voted to repeal Section 28 in England and Wales.

Across the following years, he supported civil partnership, same-sex marriage and reform of the Gender Recognition Act, as well as regulations outlawing sexuality-based discrimination and extending IVF rights to lesbian couples.

In 2018, he appointed Carl Austin-Behan as his LGBTQ+ adviser, believed to be the first role of its kind attached to a metro mayor. In the same year, his administration launched Greater Manchester’s LGBTQ+ Equality Panel, committed to tackling inequalities in the area.

In 2025, he formally apologised for decades of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination by the Greater Manchester Police. As a Catholic, he also previously urged Pope Benedict XVI and the Church to modernise their approach to same-sex relationships. 

However, he has also faced criticism from the community and has been accused of u-turning on trans rights.

He previously stated that trans people should be allowed to use the facilities that align with their gender. However, following the Supreme Court ruling on the legal definition of ‘sex’, Burnham said that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)’s guidance should be implemented “in a way that protects those spaces but does not marginalise already marginalised communities”.

“Let’s implement the guidance, but do it in the fairest and most compassionate way possible,” he commented.

Furthermore, in 2020, he met with representatives of the LGB Alliance, an organisation that has been criticised for its trans-exclusionary stance, to talk about reforms to the Gender Recognition Act.

Outside of LGBTQ+ rights, Andy Burnham has been criticised for his stance on immigration, recently backing a bill that aimed to reduce the number of successful asylum appeals in the UK. Green Party leader Zack Polanski has also expressed concerns about the new Prime Minister, saying “nothing will change”. In a post on Bluesky, he claimed that Burnham “won’t nationalise water companies”, will stick “to Rachel Reeves disastrous fiscal rules” and “refuses to recognise genocide”.

While some believe that Andy Burnham will bring a different approach to Labour, others are not convinced. His appointment additionally comes at a crucial time for the LGBTQ+ community, as the EHRC guidance is due to come into force in August and a bill banning conversion practices is in the works.

In his speech on Monday, he said his first instruction as Prime Minister will be to end rough sleeping, with his 10-year plan expected in the coming months.