It’s official: Andy Burnham is now Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, having taken over from Keir Starmer on 20 July 2026 after Starmer’s resignation. For the taxi and private hire trade, this isn’t just another Westminster reshuffle — it’s the culmination of a story DM News has been following for the best part of a year.
Burnham spent his time as Mayor of Greater Manchester as one of the loudest voices in the country campaigning against out-of-area licensing, repeatedly pointing to the fact that huge numbers of private hire drivers working in Greater Manchester hold licences issued by councils hundreds of miles away, Wolverhampton chief among them. He described the system as “broken,” pushed for an amendment to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill to close the loophole, and secured backing from mayors and MPs across the country for reform.
The difference now is that Burnham doesn’t need to lobby ministers to get his way — he is the minister. As one industry analysis put it in the run-up to his leadership win, a Prime Minister Burnham “would no longer need to ask Westminster — he would be Westminster.” For drivers licensed locally who’ve long argued cross-border hiring undercuts their standards and their livelihoods, that’s a significant shift in where the power now sits. For drivers licensed out of area, particularly the large numbers holding Wolverhampton plates, it raises real questions about what comes next.
It’s worth being clear that becoming PM doesn’t automatically deliver the reform Burnham has campaigned for — the government had already ruled out a ban on cross-border hiring as recently as November 2025, favouring a national standards approach instead, and any legislative change still has to go through Parliament. But with the architect of the “Backing Our Taxis” campaign now running the country, this is a story that’s about to move a lot faster than it has been.
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Sources:
- NPR — Andy Burnham succeeds Keir Starmer as the UK’s 7th prime minister in 10 years
- Council on Foreign Relations — Andy Burnham: What to Expect From the UK’s New Prime Minister
- Taxi-Point — Does Andy Burnham have a point on out-of-area taxis and private hire working?
- Local Government Lawyer — Andy Burnham calls for amendment to devolution bill to end ‘out of area’ taxi licensing
