MEDIA: Quoted in Nikkei

Britain's new prime minister, Andy Burnham, may be better placed than any of his recent predecessors to deepen the UK's ties with Asia, according to Mark Logan, the former Member of Parliament for Bolton North East.

Burnham, who spent nine years as Mayor of Greater Manchester before becoming Labour leader and Prime Minister this week, oversaw a string of major investments from China, Japan and India during his time running the city-region - including the Far East Consortium's £1 billion Northern Gateway development and a £100 million investment from Japanese automotive supplier Astemo.

Speaking to Nikkei Asia, Logan, whose former constituency sits within the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, said Burnham could prove to be Britain's "most Asian" prime minister. He was quoted as saying the new PM "would enter No. 10 already knowing which doors to knock on in Beijing, New Delhi and Tokyo."

Logan made a similar case in more detail two months earlier, in a widely-read essay on his Substack, Mark's Newsletter, published shortly after Burnham emerged as favourite for the Labour leadership. At the time, much of the commentary questioned whether Burnham had the foreign policy experience for the top job. Logan argued that framing missed the point entirely.

In the piece, titled "Could Andy Burnham Be Britain's 'Most Asian' Prime Minister?", Logan set out the extent of Burnham's Asia-facing record as mayor: a Sister City Agreement with Osaka signed in 2025 - Osaka's first new such partnership in twenty years - alongside two Greater Manchester trade missions to Japan, a longstanding relationship with the Manchester China Forum, and the Manchester India Partnership, which Burnham launched in 2018.

Logan noted that Japanese firms alone invested £117 million in Greater Manchester in the year before the Osaka agreement was signed, creating more than 200 jobs.

Logan was careful to note the countervailing pressures Burnham will face. His new constituency, Makerfield, voted heavily to leave the EU and, he wrote, is "a portrait of the England that feels furthest from the international economy." Domestic priorities such as the NHS, living costs, immigration and the autumn Budget are likely to dominate the new government's early agenda.

Other observers quoted by Nikkei struck a more cautious note on foreign policy, but Logan's argument is more specific: whatever Burnham's formal foreign policy experience, his personal relationships across the AP region built over nearly a decade of mayoral diplomacy are already in place.

The full Nikkei piece can be read here: https://asia.nikkei.com/politics/new-uk-pm-burnham-may-seek-stronger-asia-ties-to-power-growth

Mark Logan is a former UK Member of Parliament and political risk consultant specialising in UK-Asia relations.