Lesbian magazine DIVA explores this month where the new Prime Minister stands on key women's and LGBTQIA issues, including his position on single parent headed households.

Andy Burnham, MP for Makerfield, is officially the UK’s 59th Prime Minister, following Keir Starmer’s resignation earlier this year. So, what does this mean for LGBTQIA+ people?

As a student, the future mayor took part in demonstrations against Section 28, the Margaret Thatcher-era legislation which prevented local councils and schools from "promoting homosexuality". He subsequently cast a vote in favour of repealing the law in England and Wales in 2003.

When it came to marriage equality, he backed the Civil Partnership Act in 2004, which offered same-sex couples official legal status for the first time. Almost a decade later, in 2013, he supported the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act, which made same-sex marriage lawful across England and Wales.

A more contentious vote occurred in 2008 on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. Burnham supported an amendment proposed by Iain Duncan Smith that would have required IVF clinics to consider the "need for a father and a mother". The amendment was ultimately defeated, and clinics were instead advised to consider "supportive parenting". In a 2010 interview with PinkNews, he explained his position by saying he believed there should be "a named father figure for the child" who accepts that role and provides support as the child grows up. He later revisited those remarks in another PinkNews discussion, stating that the concern he had raised was now addressed in law because any child conceived through IVF can trace their biological father. He added that he would not seek to alter the legislation, describing the current law as "right".

On trans rights, Burnham voted in favour of reforming the Gender Recognition Act in 2019. However, the following year he held a meeting with LGB Alliance, an organisation that has faced criticism from LGBTQIA+ groups due to its opposition to transgender rights. In 2022, he stated that trans women ought to be permitted to use women's bathrooms and single-sex spaces. At Manchester Pride in 2025, he declared: "I am going to make it really plain: I support trans rights, and I want that to be known." Earlier this year, following the UK Supreme Court's ruling that the term "woman" in the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex, Burnham commented: "I think the time has come to take the Supreme Court ruling and the guidance and implement it, but to do it in a way that protects those spaces but does not marginalise already marginalised communities, that's my view."

In his role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham announced in 2022 a pledge to oppose the practice of conversion "therapy" across the region.

https://diva-magazine.com/2026/07/21/what-is-new-pm-andy-burnhams-record-on-lgbtqia-issues/