Sutton Trust Cabinet analysis 2026
Think tank: The Sutton Trust
Author(s): Various authors
July 21, 2026
This report from UK think tank the Sutton Trust examines the new Cabinet’s education backgrounds.
Andy Burnham is the new Prime Minister, and he has now appointed his cabinet. Here we look at their education backgrounds.
At 72%, the majority of the new cabinet went to state comprehensives. 24% attended private schools. This new cabinet is less representative than Keir Starmer’s first cabinet, which was the most representative – in terms of education backgrounds – ever recorded.
For the first time, we have also looked at where in the country ministers were educated, with 41% of this cabinet educated in the North of England.
Burnham is a graduate of the University of Cambridge, the first Prime Minister since Stanley Baldwin. Looking at university backgrounds of the cabinet more widely, Oxbridge is heavily overrepresented, with 55% of Burnham’s cabinet attending either Oxford or Cambridge. Less than 1% of the population are educated at these two institutions.
