Written on: October 1, 2026 by Patrick Heskins
On July 17, the UK got a new Prime Minister. This isn’t really shocking news, as Andy Burnham will be our sixth Prime Minister in 10 years. However, such changes have an impact on how we, as a Trade Association work, and also how businesses function.
SPRAY Technology & Marketing is an international magazine, so for those who aren’t fully au fait with UK politics, here’s a quick summary of how things work.
The rules that govern us
Rules and regulations are created in the House of Commons (Commons, because it is full of “commoners,” as opposed to those with a title such as Lord, Viscount or Earl, who sit in the revising chamber, the House of Lords). The UK is a Parliamentary Democracy, so we don’t elect our Head of State, as happens in, say, the U.S. or France. The Head of State is King Charles III, and all laws passed in the UK have to go through “Royal Assent.” However, the King has no say in the laws passed in his name.
When we have elections to the House of Commons, the leader of the party that has the largest number of seats becomes Prime Minister (PM). In the General Election of July 2024, Keir Starmer won a majority of Seats in the Commons and became PM. The next election must take place within the five years. The new Prime Minister then chooses a Cabinet, who are the Ministers of State for major Government departments, such as Business, Foreign Affairs and the Exchequer (Finance), from the other elected Members of Parliament (MPs) of their party.
Andy Burnham wasn’t elected as an MP at the general election in 2024. He had previously been an MP and cabinet minister between 2001 and 2017; he then became Mayor of the Greater Manchester Region. In 2026, an MP in Greater Manchester resigned, allowing Burnham to stand as a candidate in his constituency. He duly won the by-election and became an MP on May 14. Just over two months later, the Labour Party pushed Starmer out of office; he resigned as leader of the Labour Party, and Burnham was elected as the new Labour Party Leader. This made him Prime Minister.
Why are these political developments important to us?
Although not formally elected by the people, the Prime Minister leads the country. As such, she or he sets the agenda for government, leads on policy decisions and, ultimately, the buck stops with her or him. Endless speculation about the Prime Minister’s position, as was the case with Starmer, undermines a PM’s ability to govern. When a PM is removed from office, the new PM will then look to put their personality on the cabinet and change the direction of travel, meaning there are many changes in departmental leaders and, inevitably, to policy.
Policy change impact
Such changes leave a vacuum in policy and interfere with the processes of government, as new Ministers have to get up to speed with their departmental briefs. For us in the world of aerosols, and especially as a downstream user of chemicals, there is a great deal of work going on around chemical regulation, industrial strategy, energy costs, packaging waste, recycling and a whole host of other areas.
Trade associations build relationships with Civil Servants, whose job it is to enact the policy decisions made by the Ministers. If the Ministers change every two years (or even more often, as has happened in the recent past), these Civil Servants are left waiting for new instructions (although there is often continuity if the new Minister is from the same party).
Needless to say, advancements made on policy prior to a new leadership can be derailed, with time invested in proposed rules and regulations, and responding to consultations, left redundant.
Despite this inconvenient break in momentum, this isn’t our first encounter with a mid-term leadership change. We now wait to see what changes the new Prime Minister will make to his ministerial team, what policy decisions will impact our industry and focus on how we work together to build on the progress we have made. SPRAY
