Analysis of the new Cabinet by the Sutton Trust finds that the proportion of state educated Cabinet ministers has fallen, although more Ministers were educated in the North compared to both the Sunak and Starmer Cabinets.

Seventy-two per cent of the new Cabinet went to state comprehensives, 24% attended private schools. This is despite only 7% of the overall population attending private schools.

When the Labour government was elected in 2024, the Cabinet was the most representative of the UK ever recorded in terms of education backgrounds. There were a record number of state-educated ministers and the lowest proportion of privately educated ministers since 1945, at 8%.

The Sutton Trust has also looked at where in the country ministers were educated for the first time. More ministers in Burnham’s Cabinet went to school in the North compared to both the Sunak (19%) and Starmer (31%) Cabinets. 41% of this Cabinet were educated in the North of England, while 34% were educated in London and the South East.

Oxbridge is also significantly overrepresented among at the top of government, with 55% of Burnham’s cabinet attending either Oxford or Cambridge. This is a substantial increase from 38% in Keir Starmer’s cabinet.

Interestingly, Burnham bucks a 90-year trend as a graduate of the University of Cambridge. Prior to his appointment, every Prime Minister who had attended an English university since 1937 had attended the University of Oxford (including his predecessor, Keir Starmer, as a post-graduate student).