What Does New UK PM Andy Burnham Mean for Fashion?

Andy Burnham’s first nine days as UK Prime Minister have been busy. From promising to decentralize British business through devolved investment for regional manufacturing and small businesses, to a proposed “renaissance” of the high street, the leader’s preliminary speeches and early moves on Downing Street (and his new Number 10 in the north of England) have struck a chord with a British fashion and retail industry crying out for change.

According to the British Independent Retail Association, 17,000 shops closed on British high streets in 2025, with thousands of jobs lost and business rates having doubled since 2024. The Institute of Public Policy Research North reported that in 2025, the funding gap in arts and culture between the north and south of the country was £450 million.

Even beyond his fashion-adjacent policies, Burnham has been making waves with his personal style over the last two weeks, notably described as “Andycore”, “Manchester clothes” or “hipster dad clothes” by The New York Times fashion critic Vanessa Friedman. They may seem casual, but according to Friedman, Burnham’s use of his personal style, including wearing Manchester-made labels like Private White V.C., to reinforce his politics is completely intentional. She says he “really understands how to use clothes to shape opinion.” But will his strong sense of style equate to a strong focus on British fashion and retail?

Andy Burnham’s noted “hipster dad” casual style, including the Private White V.C. top worn at his victory in Makerfield by-election in June this year.

David Pemsel, chair of the British Fashion Council (BFC), wrote an open letter to Burnham in early July, stating: “What we wear can speak to identity, place, and history. It is also a serious industry, generating jobs, exports, investment and growth across the UK, supporting £67.5 billion in GVA [gross value added].” Now, experts up and down the country are vying for the PM’s attention, to shift policies and provide funding for fashion businesses to thrive.

Last week, just days into his Prime Minister run, Burnham cut business rates for music venues, pubs and hospitality businesses, as part of a wider plan to “drive good growth in every postcode”. But fashion retailers — another important part of the UK towns and cities — are yet to be given the support they need to thrive, experts agree.

“He’s trying to be the man of the people,” says retail consultant and broadcaster Mary Portas, who is following Burnham’s speeches closely. “[But] he’s got a huge job on his hands.” Portas has been banging the drum for revitalizing high streets since 2011, when she wrote the Portas Review for the coalition government under David Cameron. In his first speech after being elected MP for Makerfield at the end of June at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, Burnham asked, “Shouldn’t we make our high streets the new symbol of Britain’s renaissance?” Portas says: “So if they are going to be the renaissance of Britain, then they need to feel alive and connected and driven by community and joy in the way that they might have done many, many years ago, probably right back to the ’80s.”

Andy Burnham delivers his inaugural speech as the UK's new Prime Minister.

“Independent fashion and lifestyle retailers have had a tougher run than most,” agrees Andrew Goodacre, CEO of the British Independent Retailers Association, who wants a British business plan that goes beyond pubs and hospitality. “Fashion is the weakest performing sector on the high street, with more independents shrinking than growing. If Burnham genuinely wants a high street renaissance, fashion retailers need to be part of that conversation, not an afterthought.” He also calls for business rates reform and scrutiny of the “low-value import threshold, which is flooding the market with cheap fashion that never pays its fair share of tax”.

According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), 400,000 retail jobs have been lost in the last decade. Tom Holder, spokesperson for the consortium, highlights the BRC’s Retail Manifesto for 2026. It outlines 10 steps to revive high streets, including cutting young people’s employment costs, reforming employment rights, and fixing business rates. Holder emphasizes the need for immediate action on electricity costs and business rates, and the importance of a mix of independent and large retailers.

“The future of our high street is going to be the independents, not the big chains,” says Portas, whose agency We Are Portas recently wrote a report on Gen Z with Snapchat, finding that 51% of Gen Z prefer the physical experience of shopping in a store compared to 35% who prefer buying something instantly online. The experience of physical shops is important. “I’ve seen some incredible new business models opening up across the country, where people come together to do their own micro-shops, share the rent, share the ownership of the space. If I was the BFC, that’s what I’d be pushing for,” she says. Portas’s dream is to recreate a Hyper Hyper (the ’80s designer marketplace on Kensington High Street, which was a spring board for small brands to sell their work and build their businesses) in every community. “We’re moving away from the big brand labels to discovery, to connection. And if you create a marketplace where the handwriting is powerful, creative, unique, and it says you’re individual, then people will come.”

Kemi Gbadebo is due to show at the upcoming MFW.

Burnham’s focus on decentralizing business could benefit brands, retailers, and manufacturers throughout the UK. And it aligns with the goals of the British Fashion Council under CEO Laura Weir, who was appointed last year and has already implemented many nationwide fashion initiatives to this end. “British fashion is one of our greatest cultural exports. But for too long, participation has been concentrated in too few places,” says Weir.

The new proposal for Fashion Britain shifts the British Fashion Council’s responsibility to be more inclusive, and “inspire ambition and ensure more people can see themselves in our industry, regardless of where they live.” Designers shouldn’t have to be based in London, or graduate from London colleges to succeed in the industry. Designers like Matty Bovan, who moved back to his home in York, North Yorkshire, in 2015, have shown that it is possible to work internationally from a regional base. Decentralization could allow more designers to move to cheaper studios outside the capital and for more young people up and down the country to feel represented and included by the British fashion industry.

Peter Ruis, managing director of John Lewis, says the British retailer warmly welcomes Burnham’s focus on a high street renaissance. “Our stores aren’t just a place of transaction, they’re a social and economic anchor that drives footfall, creates local jobs, and fosters community pride,” he says. This goes hand in hand with decentralizing fashion. When John Lewis brought Liverpudlian designer Steven Stokey-Daley’s SS Daley collection into its Liverpool store and Peter Jones in Sloane Square, the response was, according to Ruis, “incredible”.

Then, in May 2025, John Lewis bought 40 pieces of SS Daley for both stores, where the designer also took part in a BFC Citywide talk. “It showed what happens when you connect exceptional homegrown design with a community that takes immense pride in its creative exports,” Ruis says. “We’re building directly on that momentum.” In October, John Lewis will roll out a menswear collaboration “rooted in Leeds heritage” across five stores, which is currently under wraps. “We don’t think of it as decentralization,” Ruis adds. “To us, it’s about investing in regional supply chains, retaining local skills, and ensuring great British talent — from Yorkshire to Merseyside to Lancashire — has a national platform to thrive.”

Backstage at SS Daley fall 2025 ready-to-wear.

On Wednesday, the BFC appeared to be in lockstep with Burnham’s focus on decentralization, when it announced its Fashion Britain campaign, launching this September across London, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Bristol, and Edinburgh, spanning public events, designer conversations and retail experiences that celebrate local identity. The long-term aim is to help the next generation of creative talent thrive outside London. Weir called it the beginning of a major shift. “Fashion Britain is about decentralizing fashion, not by diminishing London’s global importance, but by recognizing that the future of British creativity depends on strengthening the connections between every part of the UK,” she says.

Adam Mansell, CEO of the UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT), agrees there is potential to strengthen the UK’s textile industry, but only if “translated into practical, properly funded measures that reflect the needs of manufacturers, brands, retailers and the wider supply chain”. His priorities include business rates reform and devolved skills funding linked to regional manufacturing clusters, which relates directly to the technical education changes Burnham has set out. UKFT also sees opportunity in a circular textile economy: “If a textile-specific EPR scheme is designed effectively, with revenues reinvested into UK textile collection, sorting, reuse, repair, recycling, innovation and skills, it could support new investment, create skilled jobs and strengthen domestic manufacturing,” adds Mansell.