Burnham öppnar för att efterträda Starmer

Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Makerfield since 2026. A Labour Co-op member, he is currently a candidate for the 2026 Labour Party leadership election. He was the Mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017 to 2026 and served as the MP for Leigh from 2001 until 2017. During his parliamentary career before becoming mayor, he held several cabinet positions, lastly as Secretary of State for Health from 2009 to 2010 under Gordon Brown. Burnham is associated with the soft left faction of the Labour Party. Born in Aintree and raised in Culcheth, Burnham was educated at St Aelred's Catholic High School in Newton-le-Willows and studied English at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He joined the Labour Party at the age of 15 and his early career included working as a researcher for Tessa Jowell, a parliamentary officer for the NHS Confederation and an administrator with the Football Task Force. From 1998 to 2001, he was a special adviser to Culture Secretary Chris Smith. At the 2001 general election, he was elected as MP for Leigh in Greater Manchester. Under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, he held several government roles, including parliamentary private secretary; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department; Minister of State for Health; Chief Secretary to the Treasury; and Culture Secretary. In 2009, he was promoted to Health Secretary, a role in which he responded to the swine flu pandemic and launched an independent inquiry into the Stafford Hospital scandal. Following the 2010 general election, Burnham was a candidate in the 2010 Labour leadership election won by Ed Miliband, coming fourth out of five candidates. From 2010 to 2015, he served as Shadow Education Secretary and Shadow Health Secretary under Miliband. Following the 2015 general election, Burnham contested the resulting Labour leadership election, and finished second behind Jeremy Corbyn. From 2015 to 2016, Burnham served as Shadow Home Secretary under Corbyn. After being selected as Labour's candidate for the new Greater Manchester Mayoralty, he stood down as an MP at the 2017 general election, won the 2017 mayoral election, and was re-elected in the 2021 and 2024 elections. As mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham implemented reforms to public transport, taking buses and trams into a locally-controlled, integrated, London-style transport system – the Bee Network. For his role campaigning to secure more furlough funding for Northern communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, he was dubbed King of the North by both the media and Northerners – a term which has been used by both proponents and detractors when debating the motivation and long term loyalty to such campaigns. Burnham has been cited as the most likely successor to outgoing Prime Minister and Labour leader Keir Starmer. While Starmer's honeymoon period was brief, Burnham maintained high approval in Greater Manchester and, by August 2025, polls identified Burnham as the most popular senior Labour figure. In February 2026, Burnham applied to be the Labour Party candidate in the 2026 Gorton and Denton by-election but his candidacy was blocked by the party's National Executive Committee. During the crisis surrounding Starmer's leadership following poor results for Labour in the 2026 local elections, Burnham was selected as the candidate in the Makerfield by-election, which he won with 54.8% of the vote. Following Starmer's resignation as Prime Minister and as leader of the Labour Party in June 2026, Burnham announced his candidacy in the Labour Party leadership election to succeed Starmer.