Andy Burnham

Andy Burnham
81st Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Term of office 20 July 2026 -
Political party	Labour Co-op
Preceded by	Keir Starmer
Born	7 January 1970
Religion	Roman Catholic (non-observant)

Andy Burnham
Member of Parliament for Makerfield
Incumbent
Assumed office  19 June 2026
Preceded by	Josh Simmons
Member of Parliament for Leigh
In office 7 June 2001 – 3 May 2017
Preceded by	Lawrence Cuncliffe
Succeeded by	Jo Platt
Mayor of Greater Manchester
In office 3 May 2017 – 19 June 2026
Preceded by	Tony Loyd (interim)
Succeeded by	Paul Dennett (interim)
Born	7 January 1970 Aintree, Lancashire, England
Political party	Labour Party
Religion	Roman Catholic

Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970 in Fazakerley, Lancashire) is a British Labour and Co-operative Party (a term used for politicians who stand on behalf of both the Labour Party and Co-operative Party) politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party since July 2025.. He has been Member of Parliament for Makerfield since 19 June 2026. He served as Mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017 until his return to Parliament. Prior to that, he served in the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Leigh from 2001 to 2017. During this time, he had two unsuccessful Labour leadership bids; losing in 4th place to Ed Miliband in 2010 and in 2nd place to Jeremy Corbyn in 2015. As a member of HM Government under Gordon Brown, he held several ministerial positions, including Secretary of State for Health from 2009 to 2010, having also held several junior ministerial offices under Tony Blair. In opposition, he held several shadow cabinet posts, most notably being Shadow Home Secretary from 2015 to 2016 under Corbyn.

According to Burnham, the democratically elected former President of the United States Donald Trump is unwelcome in Manchester, but Burnham welcomes investment from genocidal far-left regimes such as China.

In May 2026, Burnham became the Labour and Co-op candidate for the Makerfield parliamentary by-election, which he later won.

Political career

Mayor or Greater Manchester (2017-2026)

Andy Burnham served as the Mayor of Greater Manchester for 9 years from May 2017 to June 2026. He was first elected with around 63% of the vote, being re-elected in 2021 with an increased vote share of 67%.

As Mayor, one of the most serious criticisms was his alleged cover-up of grooming gangs, of which many of the participants were of Pakistani-Muslim origin.

Member of Parliament for Makerfield (2026-present)

On 14 May 2026, Josh Simmons resigned as Labour Party MP for Makerfield, to provide a Westminster seat for the then-Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. Burnham, seen by many as a potential successor to Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour Party and indeed Prime Minister, had previously been blocked by the Labour National Executive Committee from standing in a by-election in Gorton and Denton in February that year.

Burnham won the 2026 Makerfield by-election with around 55% of the vote. His nearest rival was Robert Keynon of Reform UK, who received 35% of the vote.

Political views

Andy Burnham has described himself variously as a "socialist" and "social democrat". He was associated with the New Labour movement of Tony Blair earlier in his political career. He describes his own political ideology, dubbed "Manchesterism" and "Burnhamism", as the "end of neo-liberalism" and "business-friendly socialism".

European Union

Andy Burnham has expressed contradictory views on the European Union. In 2016, immediately before the referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union (in which the vote to leave won), Burnham stated that a vote to leave would lead not only to the breakup of the European Union, but of the United Kingdom too. Later that year, Burnham criticised middle-class champagne socialist Labour-Remain voters who smeared those who voted Leave as uneducated or xenophobic. In 2025, Burnham appeared to support re-joining the European union, having this to say: "Long-term, I’m going to be honest, I’m going to say it, I want to rejoin it. Look, I hope in my lifetime I see this country rejoin the European Union". In May 2026, after putting himself forward for by-election in Makerfield, Burnham said during a speech in Leeds that he "respected" the Leave vote of 10 years prior, and that he would not campaign to take the UK back into the EU.

Healthcare

Andy Burnham was accused in 2013 of promoting a conspiracy theory that the Coalition government of the Tories and Liberal Democrats were deliberately portraying the NHS in a negative light, and had an agenda of privatisation and marketisation of the NHS.

Social

He self-identifies as a feminist.

Despite being Catholic, Burnham appears unapprehensive in supporting abortion.