Just hours after Prime Minister Keir Starmer threw in the towel and announced his resignation, Andy Burnham confirmed his candidacy.
It’s third time lucky for Burnham, the career politician from northern England, who twice before, in 2010 and 2015, tried to take over as party leader for the social democratic Labour Party.
A good storyteller
In his hometown of Manchester, he has made a name for himself as a down-to-earth politician whom you can bump into in the pub and who likes football.
And that’s one of the factors behind Burnham’s popularity, says Rob Ford, professor of political science at the University of Manchester. Many politicians like pubs and football, but Burnham is also good at conveying that image of himself.
He is a very skilled storyteller, which is an important job in politics, he says.
He received the nickname "King in the North" during the pandemic when, as mayor of Manchester, he defied the London government’s Covid restrictions.
During his time in power, Manchester has seen significant growth. Growth in the region has been twice as strong as in the rest of the country. He has also been praised for his transformation of public transport, which he brought back under public control.
According to Ford, Burnham is good at taking an issue that people care about, that affects their lives, delivering concrete results, and then talking about it. The transformation of the bus system is one such example.
The change has led to a significant improvement in people’s lives. Now all the buses are painted yellow, you literally can’t go anywhere in Manchester without seeing tangible results from Burnham’s policies.
Manchesterism
Burnham is considered to belong to the “soft left” within Labour - between the centrist Keir Starmer and the more radical Jeremy Corbyn. Burnham himself speaks of Manchesterism, a policy that, according to him, combines growth and investment with social welfare and equality.
One of his key election issues is decentralisation. Britain is a centralised country where most power is held by Westminster in London. Burnham has promised to establish a “Number 10” in Manchester to “make power flow” around the country.
On Monday, Keir Starmer will go to Buckingham Palace and announce his resignation to King Charles, who will then ask Burnham to take over as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Andy Burnham was born in Liverpool in 1970. He has been Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. Prior to that, he had been a Labour MP since 2001. He has been Deputy Chancellor of the Exchequer (2007-2008), Minister for Sport and Culture (2008-2009) and Minister for Health (2009-2010).
Burnham is Catholic and has three children with his Dutch wife Marie-France van Heel.
