Story perspectives

UK Burnham creates Business, Innovation Department, appoints AI minister

7/22/2026

Summary

Burnham Reshapes Science

On 21 July 2026, PM Andy Burnham dissolved the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, created Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade and appointed Kanishka Narayan as the first AI minister.
Science policy, UK Research and Innovation and the Sovereign AI Fund moved to department or the PM’s Office.
TechUK, Startup Coalition and Lords peers called the restructure a “waste of time”, warning twelve months is an eternity in AI.

Summary

Narayan Elected MP

Kanishka Narayan was elected MP for Vale of Glamorgan in July 2024, becoming Wales’s first ethnic-minority MP.
He earned a PPE degree from Balliol College, Oxford, and an MBA from Stanford Business School.
He served as a civil servant under David Cameron, advised Liz Truss’s environment department, and sat on Chatham House’s advisory panel (2021-2023).
He co-founded Attain Wales (June 2012–June 2015) and was a visiting associate at the Centre for Cities (2020-2022).

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Burnham Reshapes Science

On 21 July 2026, PM Andy Burnham dissolved the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, created Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade and appointed Kanishka Narayan as the first AI minister.
Science policy, UK Research and Innovation and the Sovereign AI Fund moved to department or the PM’s Office.
TechUK, Startup Coalition and Lords peers called the restructure a “waste of time”, warning twelve months is an eternity in AI.

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