World Vision UK congratulates Andy Burnham, and calls on Britain's new Prime Minister to make his mark for every child in the world

Press statement, 17 July 2026

World Vision UK warmly congratulates Andy Burnham on becoming Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and is eager to see his global leadership deliver for future generations.

We have noted what drives him: his record in government, in Manchester, and on the doorsteps of the communities he has served for three decades, shows a leader who understands what it means to grow up without enough, and who has consistently chosen to do something about it. That record matters to us. The children we work with - living in the hardest places to be a child - need a Prime Minister, a global leader, who gets it and will take definite action for them, fast.

Fola Komolafe MBE DL, Chief Executive of World Vision UK, said:

"Andy Burnham becomes Prime Minister at a moment of profound consequence for children everywhere. Here in the UK, families are still struggling with the cost of living, and the news is full of examples of how systems are failing children.

"Around the world, children are innocent victims of wars they didn't start, droughts they didn't cause, and debt crises that were engineered long before they were born. Children are hungry and malnourished, they are in pain from diseases they haven't been vaccinated from, they don't have consistent access to an education. The world's children, our future generations, are looking for leadership that will prioritise them.

"I believe the new Prime Minister understands all of this and will take his role as a global leader with the gravity it requires. As the largest children's charity in the world, our message to Andy Burnham today is simple: the world is watching, children are waiting, and we are here to help you get this right."

The G20 moment: Britain has a chance to change the rules

In January 2027, the United Kingdom assumes the Presidency of the G20 - one of the most significant global platforms any British Prime Minister will have had in a generation to reshape the global rules that govern the lives of billions of people.

World Vision UK believes that Presidency must be used for children because every child needs the same things to thrive: safety, health, the chance to learn, and a family with enough to provide for them. These are not extraordinary asks. They are the basics. And yet for hundreds of millions of children, the systems that should deliver them - the financial rules, the debt structures, the climate finance architecture - are actively working against them.

Where we work, children feel the effects of debt cycles, suffering from cuts to things like schools and health clinics. Climate finance promised to the most vulnerable nations remains undelivered. The global financial architecture, designed in a different era for different purposes, grinds on indifferent to the children it is failing.

The G20 Presidency gives Britain a rare, time-limited, genuinely historic chance to change that. It is a chance to bring world leaders together around a simple but radical proposition: every child, everywhere in the world, should be able to survive and thrive.

Not as an aspiration. As a commitment. With the financial and political architecture to back it up.

We are calling on Prime Minister Burnham to make children the thread that runs through the UK's G20 Presidency. Not as a separate children's agenda bolted on at the edges, but as the human measure by which every G20 commitment is judged.

We are ready to work with him to achieve that.

World Vision UK will be seeking an early meeting with the new Prime Minister and his team to set out in full what we believe a children-centred G20 Presidency could look like, and how Britain can lead the world in delivering it.

We are coming with a plan. And we are eager to get started.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

The UK holds the G20 Presidency from January 2027. The G20 represents the world's largest economies and is a key forum for decisions on international finance, debt, climate, and development.

At World Vision, our focus is on helping the world’s most vulnerable children overcome poverty and experience fullness of life. For 75 years, we have worked together with communities – of all faiths and none – even in the most dangerous places, inspired by our Christian faith. Thanks to our supporters globally, we work in almost 100 countries and have changed the lives of over 200 million children in the past five years alone.  

When you give to World Vision, you know your donations will be well spent, for the greatest impact. We always work alongside communities, with a focus on the most vulnerable children and families helping them overcome poverty and experience fullness of life. So, you know your donations will go to the children in greatest need.  

For more information, case studies, assets, and interviews, please contact  

Sam Bishop: sam.bishop@worldvision.org.uk / +44 7942 101023.