What will an Andy Burnham premiership mean for Northern Ireland?

Legacy issues from the Troubles in Northern Ireland have been a thorn in the side of previous prime ministers.

The 2023 Legacy Act was introduced by the previous Conservative government and offered conditional immunity for perpetrators of some Troubles’ crimes in exchange for co-operation with a new body, the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government introduced a new bill in parliament, with MPs already having voted to repeal the conditional immunity provision.

Burnham will be expected to continue with this legislation.

Dr Thomas Leahy is a senior lecturer in British and Irish contemporary history and politics at Cardiff University.

He said there will be a “backlog of things for Burnham to do” including dealing with legacy issues.

“It wouldn’t make any sense to tear that up,” he said.

“For all the issues there’s been for Keir Starmer, I don’t think that’s one that Burnham would say, ‘oh, yeah, that was a major issue’. And public opinion in England, Scotland Wales just wouldn’t be on the pulse of that really. So I think that would continue.”

Leahy added there still could be issues around legacy for Burnham such as “what he does when he comes into office related to the release of documents, security services, intelligence services for the British state, related to legacy”.