Wikipedia (en)
Andrew Murray Burnham ( ; born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Makerfield since June 2026. A member of the Labour and Co-operative Party, he was Mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017 to 2026. From 2001 to 2017 he was MP for Leigh and held several cabinet positions, lastly Secretary of State for Health from 2009 to 2010 under Gordon Brown. Burnham identifies as a socialist associated with Labour's soft-left movement, and his political ideology is often described as "Manchesterism." Burnham is the only candidate running to be Labour leader, and with it now impossible for another candidate to stand, he will become both Labour leader and prime minister in July 2026.
Burnham grew up in Culcheth, between Liverpool and Manchester in Northern England, and joined Labour aged 15. He attended St Aelred's Catholic High School in Newton-le-Willows and read English at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. In his early career, Burnham was a researcher for Tessa Jowell and special adviser to Culture Secretary Chris Smith. At the 2001 election, he was elected MP for Leigh in Greater Manchester. Under the prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, he held several cabinet positions, firstly as Chief Secretary to the Treasury and then as Culture Secretary, in which he launched the Hillsborough Independent Panel. In 2009, he was promoted to Health Secretary, in which he responded to the swine flu pandemic and launched an independent inquiry into the Stafford Hospital scandal.
After Labour lost power in 2010, Burnham served in the Shadow Cabinets of Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn in several shadow positions from 2010 to 2016, firstly Shadow Education Secretary, primarily Shadow Health Secretary and lastly Shadow Home Secretary. He ran for Labour's leadership in 2010 and 2015, coming fourth and second. Selected as the Labour candidate for the new Greater Manchester Mayoralty, he won the mayoral election in 2017 and stood down as an MP. As mayor, Burnham reorganised Manchester's tram and bus systems as the Bee Network and was nicknamed "King of the North" for campaigning for more furlough funding for Northern communities during the COVID pandemic. He was re-elected in 2021 and 2024.
Following Labour’s return to power in 2024, Burnham maintained strong approval ratings in Greater Manchester, which contrasted with a rapid decline in Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s popularity. Burnham had previously been blocked by the party's National Executive Committee from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election, but as confidence in Starmer's leadership fell, Burnham increasingly came to be seen as his logical successor. He secured his return to Parliament by winning the Makerfield by-election in June 2026. By law, winning this seat required him to resign immediately as mayor, triggering a mayoral by-election. Four days later, Starmer announced his intention to resign, triggering a leadership election. As Burnham was nominated by over 80% of all Labour MPs, he is the only candidate to be nominated for Labour leader.
