Burnham's 2022 Biden-era meeting reveals his worker-focused trade vision

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LONDON — As mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham spent far more time thinking about buses than bilateral trade.

But one of his few public forays into the subject took place four years ago — hundreds of miles from Westminster, and even further north than his beloved Manchester.

At a U.K.-U.S. trade dialogue in Aberdeen in April 2022, Burnham was the only British mayor to join ministers, officials, business leaders and trade unions to discuss what transatlantic trade should look like in the post-Brexit era.

His intervention offers one of the most revealing insights yet into his thinking on trade — a topic which he will find impossible to ignore in today’s fraught geopolitical crisis.

Burnham, it seems, found a kindred spirit in Katherine Tai, the former United States Trade Representative under then U.S. President Joe Biden, who was championing a more worker-focused approach to trade.

Burnham was “very much focused on some of the things that Katherine Tai was focused on, including labor issues and workers,” said a former official at the office of the USTR, who, like others cited in this story, was granted anonymity to speak freely about confidential discussions. “How [can] trade agreements work for workers? How can we make it better?”

Another attendee recalled that Burnham was “supportive of trade policy promoting respect for workers’ rights, regulating global supply chains and unions being involved in trade talks.”

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Burnham couldn’t stay away from his hobbyhorse for long.

The mayor was “very focused on vehicles and e-buses and things like that,” the former USTR official added.

Fast forward four years, and international trade now falls squarely within Burnham’s brief as prime minister, at a time when the U.K. is juggling a volatile relationship with the U.S. with an ongoing “reset” with the EU, while tiptoeing towards China.

Domestic priorities

Early signs suggest Burnham’s trade agenda will be shaped by how trade can support his domestic priorities, including rebuilding industrial capacity and spreading growth beyond London and the South East.

Speaking outside No. 10 on Monday afternoon, Burnham warned that “large parts” of the country had become “deindustrialized” and “still haven’t recovered.” He pledged to reindustrialize the country by using public procurement to “back British industry” and to shift power “into every postcode in the land.”

Burnham said he would set out a 10-year plan later this year “laying out a path from where we are now to where I believe we all want Britain to be.”

Marley Morris, associate director for migration, trade and communities at the IPPR think tank, said Burnham’s broader domestic agenda was likely to extend into trade policy, predicting “a trade agenda that is very much focused on domestic priorities” — whether through trade resilience, procurement or efforts to empower regions to support exporters.

Jonathan Reynolds looks on as Burnham speaks, during his campaign launch for the Makerfield by-election in Ashton-in-Makerfield, England on May 22, 2026. | Ryan Jenkinson/Getty Images

That approach appears to be reflected in Burnham’s decision to bring Jonathan Reynolds back as secretary of state for the newly expanded Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade.

Reynolds — who returns to the brief after a 10-month stint as chief whip — was one of the architects of the government’s Industrial Strategy and oversaw its Trade Strategy, both of which sought to put economic security, resilience and support for domestic industry at the center of the U.K.’s approach to trade. He also concluded free trade negotiations with India — the most valuable post-Brexit trade deal.

For Olivia O’Sullivan, director of the UK in the World program at Chatham House, Reynolds’ appointment represented an interesting balance between the traditional U.K. approach to free trade and economic security.

The challenge, she explained, was how to use strategic industrial policy to strengthen Britain’s position in the global economy and ensure it has “leverage as a middle power in a world where trade is becoming a bit more adversarial.”

“I will be really interested to see how Reynolds and the Burnham government … develop that agenda while balancing this imperative for growth and to be pro-business,” O’Sullivan added.

Burnham’s decision to appoint former Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar as trade policy minister is less expected, given he arrives at BIST with little direct trade experience.

Sarwar was the first Labour figure to publicly call for former Prime Minister Keir Starmer to resign — and has now returned to Westminster via the House of Lords.

But his appointment also fits Burnham’s devolution drive. As Scottish Labour leader, Sarwar was a vocal champion of industrial policy, manufacturing and investment, successfully campaigning for public energy firm GB Energy to be headquartered in Aberdeen.

“[Sarwar] would certainly reinforce DBT as a particularly pro-Scottish part of government outside of just its nominal department,” said former government trade adviser and SEC Newgate director Allie Renison.

“It would show Labour as caring about the Union, although it will be important to work with the Scottish and other devolved governments on exports promotion, rather than just compete, as that is an area where partnership on delivery is important,” she added.

O’Sullivan said the creation of BIST — which has absorbed science and innovation from the disbanded Department for Science, Innovation and Technology — was a potentially useful effort to connect research strengths with industrial priorities and national security objectives. But she cautioned that machinery-of-government changes themselves could become a distraction.

“The actual process of folding departments together can be a real nightmare,” she said. “Hopefully they can do that as swiftly and sensibly as possible.”

Free trade agenda

While Burnham has been less vocal on the government’s free trade agenda, he has made it clear that he wants to develop the U.K.-EU relationship further.

In a recent foreign policy op-ed , he promised to “consolidate the progress” made in U.K.-EU negotiations and “make further progress quickly,” including by strengthening cooperation on illegal migration, economic security and resilience to external threats.

According to a read-out from a call with Ursula von der Leyen on Monday, the leaders agreed to “work closely towards a U.K.-EU Summit later in the year,” with Burnham saying that building a closer and ambitious relationship was “key to delivery in both the U.K. and Europe.”

But beyond renewing Britain’s relationship with the EU, Morris suggested the new government may place less emphasis on negotiating a new wave of free trade agreements, arguing that “there aren’t loads of options in terms of securing new trade deals.”

Instead, the focus could shift towards “making use of those trade deals [and] maximizing use of them.”

Anas Sarwar speaks to the media in the lobby of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on May 14, 2026. | Ken Jack/Getty Images

The U.K. is still pursuing an upgraded free trade agreement with Turkey, having recently concluded deals with the Gulf Cooperation Council and Switzerland, both of which still need to be ratified. Ministers will now need to decide whether to push forward on opening talks with the Mercosur trade bloc, an ambition of ex-Trade Minister Chris Bryant. UAE has also recently made a play for a bilateral deal.

Morris said ministers would face “a bit of a balancing act” between strengthening domestic resilience and keeping markets open.

While trade defenses and economic security would be priorities, he said the government’s cost-of-living agenda would also require “thinking about reducing trade barriers, particularly for imports.”

Meanwhile, Burnham has yet to break his silence on China, following Starmer’s rapprochement with the country over the past year.

He may not be able to ignore this trading relationship for long, however, with Chinese steel giant Jingye demanding compensation after the previous government nationalized British Steel’s assets. The firm is threatening legal action if it doesn’t get billions back from its investment.

Aaron Gao, a director at the global strategic advisory firm Capstone, predicted “continued pragmatic engagement” by the Burnham government towards China.

“There is recognition that the U.K.-China relationship swung too far in the other direction in the last decade, and it is in both countries’ interest to rebuild the relationship, which Starmer started doing,” he said. “I believe Burnham will continue in that direction.”

However, he added that economic security would continue to be the “central theme and limiting factor” of the U.K.-China relationship, with the U.K. expected to continue to focus on protecting itself from China in areas like steel, shipbuilding and energy infrastructure.

Trump troubles

Perhaps one of the most challenging parts of Burnham’s new position will be navigating Britain’s turbulent relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Early indications suggest the Burnham-Trump relationship might not go so smoothly.

Asked about Burnham last month, Trump was dismissive: “I don’t know anything. I see that he was, I guess, the mayor of a town. I hear he’s extremely liberal. So that means he probably won’t open up the North Sea.”

In an interview last week, Burnham suggested he would give as good as he got when dealing with the president.

“I like to think I’ve got some personality myself and I’ll just, you know, I’ll deal with him very upfront in the same way,” he said.

For now, at least, both seem to be on their best behavior, with Burnham even inviting Trump to join him in Manchester for the G20 summit next year in a phone call shortly after entering office.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Keir Starmer hold a signed trade agreement at the G7 leaders’ summit in Kananaskis, Canada on June 16, 2025. | Pool photo by Suzanne Plunkett via Getty Images

Tellingly, Burnham has kept Varun Chandra in post as special envoy to the U.S. on trade and investment. Chandra was seen as “instrumental” in getting a U.K.-U.S. trade deal over the line last year, earning praise for his business acumen and ability to charm difficult personalities.

O’Sullivan suggested Burnham might be more inclined to “draw clear dividing lines” between himself and Trump in a way that his predecessor did not.

“The question I have is whether he’s going to be a bit more like the [Canadian Prime Minister] Mark Carneys or the [Spanish Prime Minister] Pedro Sanchezes of the world, who are a bit less inclined than Starmer was to be rhetorically aligned with Trump.”

She suggested Burnham may instead “lean a bit more on this idea of the U.K. joining with other middle powers and working more closely with Europe.”

For now, Burnham’s trade agenda is shaped by the instincts of a former metro mayor — focusing on fixing Britain’s economic foundations at home.

But with Trump, the EU and China all demanding attention, the international dimension will soon become impossible to ignore.