Andrew Murray Burnham ( ; born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has been Leader of the Labour Party since 17 July 2026 and is expected to be appointed prime minister on 20 July. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Makerfield since June 2026, and 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 faction, and his political ideology is often described as "Manchesterism".
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 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-19 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 the popularity of the prime minister, Keir Starmer. Burnham was 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 likely 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, causing a mayoral by-election. Four days later, Starmer announced his intention to resign, leading to a leadership election. Burnham was nominated by over 90% of Labour MPs, and was elected unopposed.
Early life and education
Andrew Murray Burnham was born on 7 January 1970 in Aintree, Lancashire, a suburb of Liverpool. His father, Kenneth Roy Burnham, was a telephone engineer, and his mother, Eileen Mary Burnham, was a GP receptionist. He was brought up in Culcheth and educated at St Lewis Catholic Primary School and St Aelred's Roman Catholic High School, in Newton-le-Willows. He joined the Labour Party when he was 15.
Burnham read English at the University of Cambridge, where he was an undergraduate at Fitzwilliam College. He received an upper second-class Bachelor of Arts degree, which was later converted into a Master of Arts degree.
Burnham described himself as "Catholic by upbringing" but "not particularly religious". He said: "Catholic social teaching underpins my politics. We did have to read the catechism at school but it is powerful and strong and right."
Early career
After university, Burnham moved to London. From 1991 to 1994 he was a journalist for a private company, Baltic Publishing, assigned to their trade magazine Tank World (later Bulk Distributor), a magazine covering tanker and intermodal transportation. From 1994 until the 1997 general election he was a researcher for Tessa Jowell. He joined the Transport and General Workers' Union in 1995. Following the 1997 election, he was a parliamentary officer for the NHS Confederation from August to December 1997, before taking up the post as an administrator with the Football Task Force for a year. In 1998, he became a special adviser to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Chris Smith, a position he held until he was elected to the House of Commons in the 2001 general election.
Member of parliament (2001–2017)
Following the retirement of Lawrence Cunliffe, Burnham successfully applied to be the parliamentary candidate for Leigh in Greater Manchester, then a Labour safe seat. At the 2001 election he was elected with a majority of 16,362, and gave his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 4 July 2001. Following his election to Parliament, Burnham was a member of the Health Select Committee from 2001 until 2003, when he was appointed Parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the Home Secretary David Blunkett. Following Blunkett's first resignation in 2004, he became PPS to the education secretary Ruth Kelly.
In government (2005–2010)
Blair government (2001–2008)
Following the 2005 election, Burnham was promoted to serve in Tony Blair's government as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, with responsibility for implementing the Identity Cards Act 2006. In the government reshuffle of 5 May 2006, he was moved from the Home Office and promoted to Minister of State for Delivery and Reform at the Department of Health. In Gordon Brown's first cabinet, announced on 28 June 2007, Burnham was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury, a position he held until 2008. During his time at the Treasury, he helped write the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review.
Brown cabinet (2008–2010)
In a re-shuffle in January 2008, Burnham was promoted to the position of Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, replacing James Purnell. In June 2008, he apologised to the director of pressure group Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti, after she threatened to sue him for libel for smearing her reputation in an article Burnham had written for Progress magazine.
In late 2008, Burnham announced government plans to tighten controls on internet content in order to "even up" what he described as an imbalance with TV regulations. The announcement was followed by a speech to the music industry's lobbying group, UK Music, in which he announced "a time that calls for partnership between Government and the music business as a whole: one with rewards for both of us; one with rewards for society as a whole. (...) My job – Government's job – is to preserve the value in the system."
In April 2009, after being heckled at the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, Burnham used the next day's cabinet meeting in Downing Street to ask Gordon Brown if he could raise the issue of Hillsborough in Parliament, and Brown agreed. The eventual result was the second Hillsborough inquiry. In 2014, when Burnham spoke at the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, he was cheered and applauded by the crowd.
In June 2009, Burnham was again promoted, becoming Secretary of State for Health. He held the post until the Labour government resigned following the 2010 general election. In July 2009, a month after he became health secretary, Burnham launched an independent inquiry chaired by the QC Robert Francis into unusually high mortality rates at Stafford Hospital. The inquiry found systematic failures at the hospital, and was critical of care provided by the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. A wider public inquiry, also led by Robert Francis, was launched in 2010 by his successor as health secretary, Andrew Lansley. It found serious failings at the hospital but concluded it would be "misleading" to link those failings to a particular number of deaths.
After leaving office, reports claimed that Burnham and his predecessor as health secretary, Alan Johnson, had rejected 81 requests for an inquiry sitting in public to examine the high rate of deaths at Stafford Hospital. Burnham was also criticised for having not visited the hospital or personally met with affected families. According to The Daily Telegraph, after initial concerns were raised about links between mortality rates and standards of care in 2005, there were up to 2,800 more deaths than expected across 14 NHS trusts highlighted as having unusually high death rates. These figures for deaths were later discredited. A report, the Keogh Review, following an investigation into the 14 NHS trusts by Bruce Keogh, described the use of such statistical measures as "clinically meaningless and academically reckless".
As health secretary, Burnham proposed the creation of a National Care Service, which would introduce a publicly funded system of social care free at the point of use along the same lines of the National Health Service. In July 2009, the Department of Health released its green paper Shaping the Future of Care Together, which proposed a National Care Service "on par with the NHS". This was followed by a public consultation in September called the "Big Care Debate", which was promoted by Brown as a "crucial national debate". The consultation found a public desire for social care reform and explored different ways to introduce the NCS. The government decided to introduce the NCS gradually and in different stages, with the first stage beginning with the Personal Care at Home Act 2010, which was passed in April 2010.
Burnham formally launched the NCS a month earlier, giving all elderly and disabled people free social care. The second stage was planned to begin from 2014 and would extend free social care to people who were in residential care for more than two years. A third and final stage would fully introduce the NCS, giving all adults free social care after 2015. Following Labour's defeat in the 2010 general election, the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition of David Cameron and Nick Clegg scrapped the NCS and the Personal Care at Home Act 2010 was later repealed.
In opposition (2010–2017)
First leadership campaign (2010)
In May 2010, Burnham became Shadow Secretary of State for Health. After Brown's resignation as leader of the Labour Party, Burnham declared his intention to stand in the subsequent leadership contest. He launched his leadership campaign in his Leigh constituency on 26 May. Burnham stood on his philosophy of "aspirational socialism", aligning himself with Intern Aware's campaign to end unpaid internships. He made policy commitments including re-creating the National Care Service, which he had previously introduced as health secretary before its abolition by the Coalition, and replacing inheritance tax with a land value tax. Burnham finished fourth, eliminated on the second ballot with 10.4% of the vote. The leadership contest was won by Ed Miliband.
Miliband shadow cabinet (2010–2015)
In October 2010, Burnham was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Education and election co-ordinator for the Labour Party. As shadow education secretary, Burnham opposed the coalition government's plans for "free schools". He argued for moving the education system back towards a comprehensive system. A year later, he was appointed to the role of Shadow Secretary of State for Health, which he held until 2015. In July 2013 The Daily Telegraph reported that Burnham's staff had edited his Wikipedia page to remove criticisms of his handling of the Stafford Hospital scandal. Burnham's office claimed they had removed false statements that had been drawn to their attention.
Second leadership campaign (2015)
On 13 May 2015, following Labour's defeat in the general election to Cameron's Conservatives, Burnham announced that he would stand to replace Miliband in the 2015 leadership election. He stressed the need to unite the party and country and "rediscover the beating heart of Labour". Burnham was initially considered the frontrunner in the race to succeed Miliband. The emergence of Jeremy Corbyn as the candidate representing the left-wing faction of the party, in June 2015, and the consequent growth in support for Corbyn's campaign saw Burnham's lead diminish to the point that Corbyn overtook him – this was first reflected in a YouGov poll published by The Times on 21 July.
In his official manifesto, Burnham pledged to offer "a balanced plan for a strong economy and sound public finances, providing a genuine alternative to George Osborne's punishing austerity". His platform involved re-balancing the tax system, by restoring the 50p income tax rate that had been cut in the 2012 budget. He also signalled that he would not introduce the 'mansion tax' that was included in Labour's 2015 election manifesto, calling the proposal "the politics of envy". His other policies included increasing the minimum wage and scrapping the youth rate, to create a "true living wage for all ages" and abolishing zero-hour contracts and unpaid internships. He also announced that he would address the house price and rent crisis by giving councils greater freedom and increased borrowing powers to build more houses, regulate the private rented sector and introduce a land value tax on commercial properties.
In August 2015, Burnham announced that he would commit Labour to "a policy of progressive re-nationalisation" of the railway system. There was some speculation in the media that the announcement was an attempt by the Burnham campaign to align itself further to the left of the party and win back voters it had lost to Corbyn's campaign, as nationalisation had formed a key part of Corbyn's economic policy. He continued to voice his opposition to the TTIP free trade agreement between the European Union and the United States, arguing that it would undermine the National Health Service, as it would "open the floodgates" to private healthcare providers. He was also in favour of building a third runway at Heathrow Airport. In September 2015, Burnham came second to Corbyn in the election, with 19% of the vote in the first round, compared to 59% for Corbyn.
Corbyn shadow cabinet (2015–2017)
In September 2015, Burnham accepted an appointment as shadow home secretary in the first Corbyn shadow cabinet and remained in the role after the 2016 reshuffle. Burnham opposed the Prevent counter-terrorism strategy; appearing in 2016 alongside the anti-Prevent organisation MEND, Burnham said: "The Prevent duty to report extremist behaviour is today's equivalent of internment in Northern Ireland."
On 27 April 2016, the day after the Hillsborough inquest verdict that found the 96 Hillsborough deaths had occurred as a result of unlawful killing, Burnham made a speech to the House of Commons calling for those responsible to be held to account. Condemning South Yorkshire Police, which had instigated a cover-up in the aftermath of the tragedy, he described the force as being "rotten to the core" while suggesting that the cover-up had been "advanced in the committee rooms of this House and in the press rooms of 10 Downing Street". The eleven-minute statement drew applause from MPs, a response that is generally against convention at Westminster.
On 25 April 2017, as his final act in Parliament, he delivered an adjournment debate that lasted over an hour on the infected blood scandal. Burnham used the debate to present a raft of evidence stating "this scandal amounts to a criminal cover-up on an industrial scale" and that "these are criminal acts". He said that if the Government did not set up an Investigation into the scandal that he would refer his evidence to the police. In July 2017, the then Prime Minister Theresa May announced an independent public inquiry into the scandal, after successive governments since the 1980s had refused to do so. The final report was published on 20 May 2024, concluding that the scandal could have been largely avoided, patients were knowingly exposed to "unacceptable risks", and that doctors, the NHS and the government tried to cover up what happened by "hiding the truth". The then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak apologised for the failures over the scandal, calling it "a decades-long moral failure."
Mayor of Greater Manchester (2017–2026)
Candidacy and election
On 5 May 2016, a spokesperson for Burnham confirmed that he had been approached by party officials in Greater Manchester, asking him to consider resigning from Corbyn's shadow cabinet in order to run in the upcoming mayoral election in 2017. On 18 May 2016, he confirmed that he was standing for mayorship. Burnham was selected as the Labour candidate in August 2016. In September 2016, Burnham said that he would resign as Shadow Home Secretary once a replacement had been found, in order to concentrate on his mayoral bid. He was succeeded by Diane Abbott in October. Burnham said, if elected as Greater Manchester's mayor, he would resign his seat as the member of parliament for Leigh. In the event, the 2017 general election was declared two weeks before the mayoral election, and Burnham did not stand as a candidate for parliament.
Burnham was elected to the new role of Mayor of Greater Manchester on 5 May 2017. He received 63% of the vote, winning majorities in all ten of Greater Manchester's boroughs. In his victory speech, he said: "This is the dawn of a new era, not just for this city region but for politics in our country. It has been too London-centric for too long. The old political and party structures haven't delivered for all people and for all places. ... Greater Manchester is going to take control. We are going to change politics and make it work better for people."
In the election of 6 May 2021, Burnham was re-elected as mayor, with 67% of the vote on a turnout of 34.7%. In the 2024 mayoral election, Burnham was elected for a third term with 63.4% of the vote, on a turnout of 32.5%. This was the first Greater Manchester mayoral election to use the first-past-the-post voting system, with Burnham winning in every ward but one.
On Burnham stepping down as mayor, the local Manchester Evening News (MEN) newspaper gave him positive ratings for economic development and action on homelessness, although it felt he had not been as successful with police management. Its polling reported that he had a 65% approval rating. Jennifer Williams, who covered Burnham for the MEN and Financial Times, felt that Burnham had joined a longstanding "economic project dating back to the 1980s" to boost Manchester's economy and national standing, but had "injected a zeal into defining the city...to the masses" that increased its profile nationally while managing a "byzantine system" of different local authorities and bus operators, and was "loved by his workforce". She felt his career had faced more difficulties with bridging a divide between "Greater Manchester's resurgent city centre and its struggling post-industrial towns" and a tendency to "respond emotionally" to issues like homelessness "and leave the detail for later".
Homelessness and housing
The issue of homelessness in Greater Manchester was a major focus of Burnham's mayoral campaign. He pledged to donate 15% of his mayoral salary to charities tackling homelessness if elected. After his election he outlined his plan to launch a "homelessness fund", with money going to homeless charities and mental health and rehabilitation services. He pledged to end rough sleeping in Greater Manchester by 2020, but in November 2019 he admitted he would miss his target.
As mayor, Burnham continued longstanding local policies of supporting construction, especially of housing and high-rise development; Jacob Reid of Bloomberg News felt that this had succeeded in keeping Manchester's city centre "booming again" after "decades of decline". Burnham opposed adding targets for affordable housing into private construction projects, arguing that it "doesn't work" and deters construction.
Public transport
In 2020, Burnham signed off on a new £10 yearly charge for pensioners who wished to continue to use their TFGM travel passes on the region's trains and trams. The charge is said to help fund a London-style bus system. Pensioners resident in London boroughs get free travel on all public transport in London from the age of 60, while Burnham kept the Manchester system linked to the much later state pension age. Burnham pledged to bring Manchester's bus network back into public ownership by 2025. The plans were legally challenged by bus operators Stagecoach Group and Rotala, but in March 2022 the mayor and authority won the case at the High Court. Media analysts commented that the ruling could pave the way for other city regions in England to regulate bus services that had been privatised since the 1980s. Capped fares of £2 for adult single fares were introduced in September 2022. The integrated transport Bee Network was established in Greater Manchester in 2023.
COVID-19 pandemic
In March 2020, Burnham called for clearer advice on slowing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, citing his previous experience as health secretary during the 2009 swine flu pandemic. He welcomed the additional measures implemented across Greater Manchester and Lancashire by Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak in July during the pandemic, in the knowledge that (at the time) some areas across North West England had lower infection rates than the rest of the country.
On 15 October 2020, Burnham, along with other North West leaders, backed away from government talks to place Greater Manchester in tier 3 – the most restrictive level – of a new three-tier categorisation. He cited the grants system for businesses and 80% furlough scheme for employees as insufficient, saying they would push people into poverty and destitution which would outweigh the impact of the virus if mitigated correctly. Many of the concerns such as the impact on businesses and employees were shared by local Conservative MPs in Greater Manchester and surrounding areas. For his campaigning to secure more furlough funding, he was dubbed the "King of the North" by the media. He did not secure as much extra money as he had wanted, being forced to lower his request for £90 million to £65 million.
Investigations into child sexual exploitation
Shortly after first being elected as mayor in 2017, Burnham initiated a review of historical child sexual abuse allegations in Manchester and Rochdale, later expanding the scope of the investigation to Oldham. Part one of the review (focusing on Manchester) reported in 2020, part two (focusing on Oldham) reported in 2022, part three (focusing on Rochdale) reported in 2023 and part four (led by HMICFRS and covering the whole of Greater Manchester) reported in 2025.
In January 2025, Burnham backed calls for a national public inquiry with limited scope into group-based child sexual exploitation and the power to compel people to give evidence. This came a day after the House of Commons voted against a wrecking amendment to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill calling for an inquiry. The amendment, proposed by the Conservative Party, had been subject to a whip which prevented Labour MPs from supporting it.
Greater Manchester Baccalaureate
Upon his third re-election in 2024, Burnham expressed his wish to "give everyone growing up [in Manchester] an equal alternative to the university route" through the creation of a baccalaureate in collaboration with local and prospective businesses, in an attempt to provide certainty that young people in Greater Manchester have the skills needed by businesses in the area. The scheme, nicknamed the MBacc, aims to be fully operational by 2030.
National profile and resignation
Burnham has been touted by many commentators as a potential successor to Labour Party leader and incumbent Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whom he supported during the 2020 leadership election. Following his landslide re-election in 2021, he emerged as the bookmakers' favourite to become the next Labour leader. Asked about his ambitions, Burnham said his role as mayor was his priority, but made himself available in case "they [Labour] needed me one day in the future". In September 2023, Burnham was ranked twelfth on the New Statesman's Left Power List, described as a "key dissenter" and a "crucial voice" in the party, as well as a potential future party leader.
Starmer went on to win the 2024 general election, returning Labour to government. During the Sky News 2024 general election night broadcast, Burnham served as a high-profile guest analyst alongside former Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson. 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 September 2025, the foundation of the Burnham-backed Mainstream was seen as raising the prospect of a possible leadership challenge. Two polls released during the 2025 Labour Party Conference separately found that 62% of Labour members would support Burnham over Starmer, and that Burnham would be the first choice among prospective Labour leaders, with 43% of the preferences, well above Wes Streeting's 9%.
On 24 January, Burnham applied to stand as Labour's candidate in the 2026 Gorton and Denton by-election, but was blocked in an 8–1 vote by the NEC on 25 January 2026, with Starmer voting against what had been framed as a route to a potential challenge from Burnham to his leadership. Meanwhile, concern existed among Labour figures that Burnham's candidacy would lead to a by-election for the position of mayor, which would be costly and politically risky for the party: MP Graham Stringer expressed his reluctance to let Reform UK "have a go" at winning the mayoralty. The by-election was ultimately won by the Green candidate Hannah Spencer. Burnham had previously beaten Spencer in the 2024 mayoral election by a margin of 375,000 votes.The Labour Party's poor performance in the 2026 local elections led to a crisis around Starmer's leadership, during which Burnham was widely speculated to succeed Starmer as prime minister and Labour leader. On 11 May, Angela Rayner said that the NEC blocking Burnham's return to parliament was a mistake. Burnham travelled to London on 12 May to meet MPs. On 13 May, Pippa Crerar on ITV's Peston reported that allies of Burnham said that they had found him a seat, and speculated about its identity.
His candidacy is popular with the soft left of the party. He is considered that faction's preferred candidate along with Rayner. Some members of the Tribune group are also supportive. Labour MPs who supported Burnham publicly include Miatta Fahnbulleh, Rachael Maskell, Clive Lewis, Paula Barker, Richard Burgon, Connor Naismith and Sarah Owen. Burnham has been described by The Guardian as "the only major politician in the country who enjoys positive favourability ratings [in opinion polls]".