How much does the Prime Minister earn? Andy Burnham’s new salary explained

ANDY Burnham officially becomes Britain’s new Prime Minister today (July 20), after taking over from Sir Keir Starmer. But how much does the top job actually pay, and how does it stack up against his previous earnings for running Greater Manchester? Andy Burnham was confirmed as Labour’s new leader on July 17, 2026 Credit: AFP How much will Andy Burnham earn as Prime Minister? The Prime Minister’s pay is made up of two parts – an MP’s salary plus an additional amount for holding the chief role. On April 1, 2026, the basic MP salary rose from £93,904 to £98,599. Sign up for the Politics newsletter Thank you! The decision was made by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, the body that sets MPs’ pay. Ministerial salaries, including the Prime Minister’s, are set separately through a different legal process. Under a statutory order that took effect on April 1, 2026, the Prime Minister’s additional entitlement rose to £83,837, up from £80,807. Combined, that means Andy Burnham is set to earn £182,436 a year as Prime Minister. How does it compare with his salary as Mayor of Greater Manchester? As Mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham was paid an annual salary of £118,267, and donated a fair chunk of it to charity. When he first became mayor in 2017, he pledged to donate 15% of his earnings to a fund tackling homelessness in Greater Manchester. Most read in The Sun And on winning the Makerfield by-election this year, Burnham said he intends to carry on the practice. He said: “One thing that I want to continue from my time as mayor of Greater Manchester is donating 15% of my salary. “I did that for nine years as mayor to tackle homelessness in Greater Manchester and I am going to carry it forward as MP for Makerfield but this time donating to worthy local causes at the heart of our communities.” Burnham didn’t move directly from the Manchester Mayor’s office into Downing Street. He was automatically disqualified as Mayor the moment he won the by-election on June 18, and spent around a month as a backbench MP before becoming Prime Minister on July 20. What other perks come with the job? Alongside his salary, Burnham gets the use of a rent-free flat on Downing Street, along with Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country retreat in Buckinghamshire. While No10 is the PM’s official residence and the base for cabinet meetings and government business, several recent occupants have actually slept next door. No11 is technically the Chancellor’s residence, but the four-bedroom flat is significantly larger than the one above No10, and PMs with young families have tended to take it instead. Tony Blair started the trend in 1997, swapping flats with his chancellor Gordon Brown, and the same arrangement was later used by David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer. Rishi Sunak, however, chose to stay in the smaller flat above No10. The two buildings are connected internally, so the switch makes little difference to how the Prime Minister actually works day to day. Unlike his predecessors, Burnham does not intend to use Downing Street as his main residence. He plans to keep living at his family home near Wigan and spend part of each week working from a proposed Manchester base dubbed ‘No10 North’. But rest assured, Larry – the famous Downing Street cat and Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office – is not packing his bags. Comment now