UK Confirms Burnham’s Former Fiefdom of Manchester to Host G20
(Bloomberg) — The leaders of the world’s biggest economies will descend on Manchester next year after the UK government confirmed the English city will host the Group of 20 summit.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham will use his first trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York to announce the city he led as mayor for almost a decade as the venue for the leaders summit, according to a statement on Monday from his office.
The decision to choose Manchester in the northwest of England as the center of the UK’s G-20 presidency was made before Burnham came to power. But with the city now the site of his new No. 10 North office launched to rival the government’s base in London, the location only serves to compliment the new premier’s regional growth and devolution-focused agenda.
The UK will take over presidency of the G20 from the US in December, and with one eye on the volatile global picture putting pressure on Britain’s economy, Downing Street was keen to highlight the potential benefits for Britain that the global leadership role creates.
Burnham’s spokesman, Tom Wells, told journalists on Monday that it offered the chance for Britain to argue for a global economic approach that creates the conditions for stable growth and fair trade to improve the lives of voters across the UK; a move away from the current turmoil threatening to worsen cost of living challenges at home.
The prime minister is traveling Tuesday to New York, where he will hold his first in-person meeting with US President Donald Trump and address the UN. He will use the trip to push like-minded countries for greater cooperation on global security and defense, as well as harnessing artificial intelligence, according to his office.
It marks Burnham’s first appearance on such a high profile global stage and offers him the opportunity to set out his international priorities. He plans to use the presidency to highlight the UK’s role in tackling “major global challenges such as AI,” Wells told reporters.
Alongside the Manchester Summit, scheduled for Nov. 27-28, 2027, regions across the whole of the UK will host a series of events throughout the year, Downing Street said.
The UK last hosted the G20 in April 2009, in London. Gatherings of the group of major economies are usually held in big cities, as opposed to the smaller G7 and G8 summits, which tend to be hosted in smaller, more rural locations.
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