PM Burnham appoints Yvette Cooper as health secretary
- 20 July 2026
- Yvette Cooper has been appointed health secretary by new prime minister Andy Burnham
- She replaces James Murray, who held the role for just over two months
- Cooper previously served as foreign secretary and home secretary under Sir Keir Starmer
Prime minister Andy Burnham has appointed Yvette Cooper as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care as part of his first cabinet reshuffle.
The MP for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley will lead Burnham’s £18 billion plan for a national care service.
Cooper previously served as foreign secretary from September 2025 to July 2026 and home secretary from July 2024 to September 2025, under Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership.
She replaces James Murray, who served as health secretary for just over two months after being appointed on 14 May 2026 following the resignation of Wes Streeting, who had “lost confidence” in then-prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.
In a post on X on 20 July, Cooper said: “It’s a real honour to be appointed health secretary by Andy Burnham – 27 years after I worked on the first NHS Cancer Plan as a junior health minister.
“I’m looking forward to working urgently to improve maternity services, to take forward plans for social care, and to once again play a part in supporting our National Health Service, Labour’s proudest achievement.
“Most of all I’m looking forward to working with the dedicated NHS staff, carers, healthcare professionals and volunteers on whom we all depend.”
It’s a real honour to be appointed Health Secretary by Andy Burnham – 27 years after I worked on the first NHS Cancer Plan as a junior health minister.
I’m looking forward to working urgently to improve maternity services, to take forward plans for social care, and to once…
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) July 20, 2026
Last week, Burnham used his Labour leadership victory speech to promise that he would have the “courage to fix the big things that politics has neglected, like social care”.
Baroness Casey of Blackstock is currently leading a review of the social care system, which is said to become the backbone of Burnham’s reforms.
On the appointment of Cooper as health secretary, Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King’s Fund, said: “Unlike many of her predecessors, Yvette Cooper has been given a very clear mandate.
“The new prime minister, Andy Burnham, has said that his government must have the courage to fix the big things that politics has neglected, including social care.
“Given this new focus, long overdue need for action and the prime minister’s personal commitment to fix social care, social care reform should be at the top of Yvette Cooper’s in-tray.
“The new prime minister has already spoken about his desire for social care to operate on an ‘NHS principle’ and pointed to the billions, as our recent work highlights, that delayed discharges cost to the health service a year. To deliver this, the new Secretary of State will have to move at speed.
“Alongside this, there will be a host of challenges and live issues. Reviving the promised ‘health mission’, will be one of these. The prevention revolution has for the most part stalled since the historic Tobacco and Vapes Act but action across government to consider the implications for health in all policies would signal a step change.
“Steering through the largest NHS reorganisation in over a decade in the form of the Health Bill, alongside implementing a sweep of plans and strategies already set in motion such as the 10 year health plan, life sciences sector plan, capital plan, cancer plan and upcoming workforce plan, will all need Yvette Cooper’s immediate attention.”
