He’s one of the most recognised faces in Greater Manchester and beyond.
In fact he is such an omnipresent figure in our region that Andy Burnham’s name has become synonymous with the state of local politics in recent years.
Burnham has been Greater Manchester mayor since 2017 – but he had a long career in politics before that.
Andy Burnham in training for the the Rob Burrows Strictly Ball at Leigh Leisure Centre with pro partner Cara Tighe.
(Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)
First elected to Parliament in 2001, Andy was the MP for Leigh, around four miles from where he grew up. He was born in Old Roan near Aintree in Merseyside, leading some to question whether a ‘Scouser’ could really become the first mayor of Greater Manchester.
A year after he was born in 1970, his dad got a promotion at the Post Office which took him to Manchester city centre. According to Andy, his dad Roy and mum Eileen ‘randomly’ decided to move to Culcheth which is halfway between Liverpool and Manchester.
Roots in the North West
In his book Head North, which was published in 2024, Andy revealed that his dad had once spent the day at a telephone exchange in the village near Warrington and he ‘liked the feel of the place’. Although the village ‘leant more towards Manchester’, Andy says that most people in Culchetch supported Liverpool, making the Burnhams the only match-going Everton family in that part of Cheshire.
A passion for football
Andy watched his beloved football club take on Norwich in the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park in Birmingham, which took place on the same day as the Hillsborough disaster. In his book, he recalls the anxious wait he, his dad and brothers Nick and John faced that day to find out if their friends were still alive after hearing that Liverpool fans had been killed in a crush at the stadium in Sheffield.
Andy with his mum Eileen
(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool ECHO)
Five years earlier, Andy ran onto the pitch at Highbury during the 1984 FA Cup semi-final. He is still an Everton season ticket holder.
An ‘obsession’ with music
Andy’s other ‘obsession’ growing up was music. In the book, he reveals that, during the early 1980s, his favourite album was Signing On by Birmingham reggae band UB40 and describes one of the songs on the LP, ‘One in Ten’, as the ‘soundtrack of our times’.
A few years later, as he was preparing to take his O Levels in 1986, a schoolfriend lent him Hatful of Hollow by The Smiths – a moment he says ‘changed everything’. Later that year, Mr Burnham saw The Smiths live at Salford University on The Queen Is Dead tour.
He describes the gig as a ‘riotous night’ that remains the best gig he has ever seen. “While not in tune with his views now,” he writes, “I can’t deny how important [The Smiths frontman] Morrissey was to me as I evolved from a mid-80s scally into a late-80s student.”
Andy also fondly recalls a night at Blackpool’s Empress Ballroom in 1989 with his two brothers to see his new favourite band – The Stone Roses. The ‘Madchester’ scene was in full swing by the time he returned to Cambridge for his second year of university and his ‘loose connection’ to it gave him a ‘new-found confidence’ including when trying to impress ‘first-year girls’ – one of whom he married.
His wife and family
Marie-France van Heel was Dutch but lived in Belgium before she started studying at Cambridge University. She has worked in marketing for most of her career and now sits on the board for Manchester-based public electric vehicle charging network Be.EV.
The couple were living in London – in a two-up, two-down near Brixton – when they had their first son Jimmy in March 2000. After getting married a few months later, Andy became an MP and moved back up North where daughters Rosie and Annie were born.
Andy with his wife Marie-France and their family in 2008
(Image: National Museums Liverpool)
By the time he was selected as the Labour candidate for the Leigh constituency, Andy had been working in politics for several years. He started working as a parliamentary assistant for Labour MP Tessa Jowell, who later became the UK’s culture secretary, in 1994.
From journalism to the heart of government
The opportunity came up while he was working as a staff writer for trade magazine Tank World. His editorial assistant Eleanor Mills, who would go on to be the editorial director of the Sunday Times, was Tessa’s step-daughter and suggested he applied for the job.
In his book, he reveals that, at first, he was branded by the Leigh Constituency Labour Party as the ‘parachute candidate’ from London. He ‘broke the ice’ at one selection meeting by telling members of a time he walked home from legendary Leigh nightclub Reubens.
A couple of years after he was first elected as an MP in 2001, Andy was appointed as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the then home secretary David Blunkett. He was promoted at the Home Office by Prime Minister Tony Blair after the 2005 general election.
The next year, he became a health minister. He was promoted to the cabinet under Gordon Brown as chief secretary to the Treasury.
He held that position until 2008 when he became the culture, media and sport secretary. He then became health secretary in 2009.
After Labour lost the general election in 2010, Andy stood to become leader of the party, but came fourth in a contest of five candidates. He served under Ed Miliband as shadow health secretary and moved to education before returning to the health role.
Andy Burnham stood for Labour leader twice
(Image: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)
He stood for Labour leader again in 2015, but finished second, a long way behind Jeremy Corbyn. He served as shadow home secretary but stood down in 2016 after being selected as Labour’s candidate to become the first directly-elected mayor of Greater Manchester.
How he became mayor
In his book, written alongside Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram, he recalls the moment when he decided to leave Parliament at a pub in Westminster one evening in 2016. It was there, they claim in the book, that the two MPs who were born three miles apart, decided to leave Westminster together and ‘build something different from the outside’ by running to become mayors.
But Andy did not have the support of Greater Manchester’s council leaders at first with only one of the 10 backing him as the Labour candidate. Manchester council leader Richard Leese told the Manchester Evening News at the time that Andy was not even his second choice – but the MP managed to get the support of members and says that he and Sir Richard became ‘formidable’ partners.
Since then, Andy has been elected as mayor three times, breaking records more recently. In 2021, he won in every single one of the 215 council wards in Greater Manchester – even those that elected councillors from other parties at the local elections on the same day.
‘King of the North’
The win came months after he was declared the ‘King of the North’ following a stand-off with the government over Covid restrictions. A year later, the jacket he wore during an infamous press conference at the time went on display at the People’s History Museum.
Andy Burnham was nicknamed ‘King of The North’
(Image: PA)
In 2024, he won 63.4 per cent of the vote, a smaller share compared to the previous election. But, winning by a bigger margin of more than 420,000 votes, his team claimed to have secured the largest ever majority in British electoral history following the huge victory.
Labour leader contender?
Andy is often asked whether he wants to have another go at becoming the leader of the Labour Party. However, the 54-year-old would first have to become an MP again and he has said that he intends to serve a full third term as Greater Manchester mayor.