Today (20 July), as Andy Burnham enters Downing Street as the UK’s new Prime Minster, we are calling on him to turn ambition into action and deliver the commitments set out in the Government's Animal Welfare Strategy to improve the lives of millions of farmed animals across the UK.

The first few months of the new Prime Minister’s premiership will be a crucial test of whether the Government will deliver on its promise to deliver the biggest boost to animal welfare in a generation.

turning promise into real change

The publication of the Animal Welfare Strategy at the end of 2025  marked an important step forward. Now attention must turn to implementation. If delivered, the strategy could bring about significant improvements for millions of farmed animals, including ending the cage age for UK laying hens  and mother pigs, bringing in more humane slaughter methods for pigs and fish and requiring clearer welfare labelling for shoppers.

We are asking the new Prime Minister to ensure that improving farmed animal welfare remains  a clear priority for the Government, and promise is turned into real change.  Key measures that we’re pressing the new Prime Minister to act on include:

End the use of cages for laying hens, around six million hens every year are confined in small and cramped cages. 
Launch the consultation on ending farrowing crates, which confine around 150,000 mother pigs annually in cages so small they cannot even turn around. 
Phase out high-concentration CO₂ stunning for pigs, a method that causes severe distress to around nine million pigs each year. 
Introduce mandatory method of production labelling, helping consumers make informed choices while rewarding higher-welfare farming.

With more than one billion animals farmed in the UK every year, meaningful progress on farm animal welfare must be at the heart of the Government's plans. 

Now is a crucial time

Anthony Field, Head of our UK office said:

We congratulate Andy Burnham on his appointment as the UK’s new Prime Minister and look forward to working constructively with his Government to improve the lives of millions of farmed animals. The publication of the Government’s Animal Welfare Strategy was an important milestone in setting out a clear vision for improving farmed animal welfare. But the challenge now is delivery, and it is on this that the success of the strategy will ultimately be judged.

More than one billion animals are farmed in the UK each year, and millions continue to endure cages, extreme confinement and avoidable suffering. The commitments in the Animal Welfare Strategy offer a genuine opportunity to change that.

The new Prime Minister now has an opportunity to turn ambition into action. Compassion has written to Andy Burnham, setting out our priorities for delivering the Animal Welfare Strategy. We look forward to working with the Government to ensure these long-awaited reforms are implemented without delay.

Help support our campaigns to turn Government promises into action and end the suffering of factory farmed animals worldwide.

New Prime Minister must deliver long-awaited animal welfare reforms