Andy Burnham has named his first cabinet since becoming prime minister, marking notable shifts in composition compared with his predecessor Keir Starmer’s team. The new appointments, announced this week in Downing Street, reflect historic milestones and changes in regional representation, educational background, and diversity within the government.

For the first time in British political history, women constitute half of the cabinet, a significant departure from earlier eras. When Margaret Thatcher assumed office in 1979, she did not appoint any women to her cabinet, and under John Major there were periods without any female representation in top ministerial positions. Tony Blair increased female representation during his tenure, but women remained a minority. Prior to Burnham’s appointments, Starmer came close to gender parity in 2024, with 46% of cabinet members being women. Burnham’s team officially achieves this milestone, although some Starmer supporters note that replacing Rachel Reeves with John Healey as chancellor reduces female presence within the four highest offices of state.

Geographically, there is a pronounced concentration of cabinet members from the north-west of England. Burnham, a former mayor of Greater Manchester and often dubbed the “king of the north,” has appointed over a quarter of his cabinet from this region, despite it accounting for just 11% of the national population. This continues a trend from Starmer’s tenure, contrasting sharply with the conservative cabinets under Rishi Sunak, which included only two northern MPs, one of whom was Sunak himself.

The educational profile of the cabinet has also shifted under Burnham. Whereas Starmer’s ministerial team included no full cabinet members who primarily attended private schools, Burnham’s cabinet now has 22% with such backgrounds, over three times higher than the proportion in the general population. Nonetheless, this remains lower than under recent Conservative governments, where private school attendees made up more than half of the cabinet. For context, the cabinets formed by Sunak, Liz Truss, and David Cameron included majorities educated privately, with Boris Johnson’s reshuffles reaching almost two-thirds.

The dominance of Oxbridge alumni persists in Burnham’s cabinet, with more than half having attended either Oxford or Cambridge universities. This stands in contrast to the general UK population, where only about 1% have such educational credentials. Burnham himself studied English at Cambridge, becoming the first prime minister from that university in over a century.

Regarding ethnic diversity, four cabinet members come from minority ethnic backgrounds, including Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, and AI Minister Kanishka Narayan. This accounts for roughly 14% of the cabinet, closely reflecting the UK’s overall population share of 16%. This represents an improvement over Starmer’s cabinet but remains below levels seen under Sunak’s leadership.

Burnham’s cabinet demonstrates a blend of historic progress on gender parity and continued regional and educational concentrations, amid incremental advances in ethnic representation. The new team signals the evolving political landscape under his premiership as he seeks to balance diverse interests and backgrounds within his government.