Number 10 North in Manchester positioned to grow links to China

One of the most obvious questions about the United Kingdom's prime minister-to-be is — who is Andy Burnham?

This applies equally to the domestic audience as much as external observers of UK politics because Burnham is someone whose route to 10 Downing Street is not the conventional one.

Britain's Labour Party announced on Friday that Andy Burnham has been confirmed as its leader. He is expected to be appointed prime minister on Monday after Keir Starmer formally steps down, in accordance with established procedure.

The 56-year-old, who is married with three children, and whose Dutch wife has worked in the electric vehicle industry, served as health secretary in a previous Labour Party government, before leaving national politics nine years ago to stand for and win the post of mayor of Greater Manchester.

Born not in Manchester but in neighboring Liverpool, his northwestern heritage is a big part of Burnham's personal and political identity, and he has made it clear that looking at the map of the country from a non-Westminster point of view will be a defining part of his approach as he builds his profile both at home and, perhaps more challengingly, on the world stage.

But, coincidentally, one place where he already has a degree of global awareness is China.

Liverpool, where he was born, is home to Europe's oldest Chinatown, and Manchester, where he was shaped, is home to Europe's third-largest Chinatown.

The birth place of the Industrial Revolution and famed for its creative industries, especially music, Manchester has a huge community of Chinese students, many of whom are among the estimated 200,000 people who travel each year on direct flights between Manchester and Beijing, a route that celebrated its 10th birthday earlier this year.

In addition, Manchester has a sister city relationship with Wuhan, and in September 2018, Burnham visited China, where he was particularly impressed by the country's high-speed train network, saying "railway passengers in the north of England deserve a service every bit as clean, comfortable, and reliable as those traveling in northern China".

In remarks that seem almost prophetic of his prime ministerial plans, he noted "the future of a global world is one of cities working together across borders and seas and making the difference — centralized power is rapidly becoming a thing of the past".

He said: "Stronger international city-to-city ties will not only allow us to share our experiences and best practices, but more importantly to work collaboratively across industry, academia, and policy in shaping the solutions for tomorrow's world."

The visit was followed in December 2018 by Burnham welcoming Liu Xiaoming, China's then ambassador to the United Kingdom, to the city.

And, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Burnham was quick to show solidarity, delivering a media conference in the city's Chinatown to discuss plans to deal with the looming crisis.

Later, at the inquiry into the pandemic, he revealed the first indication he had of "just how serious it was" was through meetings with members of Manchester's Chinese community in the months before the pandemic fully took off, saying people had been in a "very high state of alarm" and asking for help.

At the start of this year, Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister at the time, paid a high-profile visit to China, becoming the first UK leader to visit the country since 2018, having what he called a "very warm" meeting with China's top leader and helping revitalize the relationship between the countries.

And not long after that, China's Consul General in Manchester Tang Rui met Burnham to follow up on that Beijing meeting.

As travel numbers, community size, and history show, China matters in Manchester, and as trade figures show, China matters even more in the UK economy.

According to figures published in June by the UK's Department for Business and Trade, in the four quarters to the end of 2025, China was the UK's fourth-largest trading partner, accounting for 5.5 percent of total trade.

This is a relationship that is growing in importance, with no sign of that being about to change. And in Andy Burnham, the UK has a prime minister whose past record with China may help make that relationship even more important in the future.