British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has promoted Kanishka Narayan to minister of state for artificial intelligence, giving the AI portfolio a direct presence in Cabinet as the new government prepares to set out its technology and industrial policies.

Narayan was appointed jointly to the Cabinet Office and the newly created Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade on Monday, 20 July. He will attend Cabinet meetings but is not a full Cabinet minister or secretary of state, according to the British government.

The appointment came hours after Burnham formally became prime minister, succeeding Keir Starmer.

Starmer first visited Buckingham Palace on Monday to tender his resignation to King Charles III. Burnham then met the king and was invited to form a government before traveling to Downing Street to deliver his first address as prime minister.

Burnham promised what he called a “circuit breaker” for Britain and said his government would seek to restore political and economic stability.

Burnham had returned to Parliament by winning the Makerfield by-election on 18 June, almost a decade after leaving Westminster to become mayor of Greater Manchester.

Starmer announced his decision to step down four days later amid pressure from Labour lawmakers following poor local election results.

Labour elected Burnham its leader on Thursday, 16 July, and formally presented him at a party conference the following day.

He succeeded Starmer as prime minister without a general election because Labour retained its majority in the House of Commons.

AI enters Cabinet discussions

Narayan’s promotion places AI in the government’s highest-level discussions for the first time, although the government has not yet published a detailed breakdown of his expanded responsibilities.

Under Starmer, Narayan served as parliamentary under-secretary of state for AI and online safety from September 2025. His responsibilities included AI adoption, the AI Security Institute, semiconductors, technology-led growth, online safety and the Intellectual Property Office.

The promotion comes alongside a wider reorganization of British technology policy. Burnham has folded the former Department for Science, Innovation and Technology into the larger Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade.

The proposed abolition of the standalone technology department had prompted concern among technology executives and some Labour politicians that science and technology could receive less attention inside a larger business ministry. Elevating the AI minister appears to preserve a direct channel into Cabinet for the government’s most consequential technology portfolio.

Narayan is expected to help shape policy on AI investment, computing infrastructure, public-sector adoption, copyright, safety and Britain’s dependence on chips and models developed overseas.

He has previously argued that Britain cannot compete with the US and China purely through the size of its capital or computing resources. Instead, he has called for targeted investment across the AI supply chain, stronger domestic capabilities and partnerships with the US and other “middle powers.”

Narayan has also identified energy availability, grid connections and limited growth capital as constraints on Britain’s ability to expand data centers and AI companies. He has highlighted British strengths in areas including computer vision, drug discovery and materials research.

Born in Bihar and raised in South Wales, Narayan has represented Vale of Glamorgan since July 2024. Before entering Parliament, he worked in the civil service, investment banking and venture capital. He studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University and completed an MBA at Stanford University.